Midnight Silk
by derangedhighlander
Summary: When Zuko burns something special to Katara, she goes to his rooms to exact her revenge. What she finds there isn't exactly what she expected... oneshot, Zutara. Very... detailed. Not for the faint of heart, or the innocent.


Katara knew something was wrong the moment she stepped into her room and the smell of burned fabric assaulted her nose. With a twisting feeling in her gut, she began to search the room for the source. Her bed covers, if a bit more rumpled than she remembered, were okay. The curtains were still drawn tightly. A flash of blue silk hanging out of her drawer caught her attention and she groaned.

_The silk for Suki's dress!_

Frantically, Katara pulled the silk from the drawer and searched it. It was burned in several spots, singed pieces of silk floating to the floor with her rough movements. Katara's head thudded against the chest of drawers with a hollow thunk.

_Of course, the only thing I really need!_

How had it gotten burned? There are no candles in the room, and firebenders had no reason to search her underwear drawer. Aang had been in the city with Toph, and Zuko-

Katara snarled. _Zuko!_

It occurred to her that she might be rushing a bit blindly toward an unlikely culprit, but her mind had latched onto Zuko's face with a stubborn will. She knew the guards outside her rooms quite well; they would have let no one else in but their Fire Lord or the Avatar.

Her mind arrowed in on one thought and one thought only: _Zuko must pay_.

Zuko didn't know who decided blue was the most calming color in the world. Katara's eyes, a beautiful crystalline blue that only the Water Nation could have, shown with an inhuman fury that would not have been misplaced on the mug of a demon.

Katara stared straight into his eyes with unflinching intensity. Her straight white teeth, stark against her dark skin, were bared in a truly animalistic snarl. Zuko couldn't help thinking, even as dread slid down his spine, that Katara was pretty. She always had been, but during the years he had been dogging their heels in pursuit of the Avatar, she had truly come into her own. He just wished he could live to see it another day. Judging by her expression, he wouldn't.

Silently, Katara lifted a length of blue silk. The color, a deep cerulean blue, gleamed with small bits of crushed crystal, just like the night sky. It was an impressive bolt of fabric; and, undoubtedly, very expensive.

The bottom half was a tattered, singed wreck. Holes were burned into the fabric, and several pieces flaked off and fell to the ground as Katara held up the piece.

"There," she iterated slowly, oh so very slowly, "is only one firebender who could have done this. Ah ah ah," she said when Zuko opened his mouth to argue. "Aang is accounted for. He has an alibi. He and Sokka took a boy's day."

Zuko swallowed.

_I helped to defeat the Fire Lord, I learned fire bending from the last dragons and the last Sun Warriors, I am the newly crowned Fire Lord and ushered in a new era of peace along with the Avatar. I still cannot face down one angry female waterbender. _Zuko blinked his eyes several times, the golden glow concealed for a moment only to reappear.

"You have no proof it was me!"

_No! _He snarled to himself. _Don't let go of your temper! It's like putting blood in the water around a shark, with pretty blue eyes and a penchant for bending frozen water spikes. _

"There are no other firebenders who can enter my rooms, Zuko. The guards would have let no one else in."

Zuko cursed himself for putting guards on her rooms. It had become a necessity when the steady stream of suitors who crept into her rooms refused to abate. Apparently, her attitude had not been enough to dissuade them from seeking her hand. Zuko had to withhold himself from grinning when he thought of the racket that had caused him to come running to her rooms, along with the rest of her friends, when the first one had crept in. She had been angry enough to cow a dragon and make it whimper.

As her eyes stared, with unchecked fury and violence raging in them, Zuko realized that she was angrier now than she had been then.

There was no way he would tell her why he had been in her rooms though. Those blue eyes could not blaze bright enough to scare him into that dirty little confession.

Katara, beautiful, compassionate, honest Katara. _Unpredictable _Katara. Her tactic changed then. Those eyes softened, and a tremulous smile dimpled her cheeks. Lowering her eyes, she self-consciously tucked one dark braid behind her ear.

That had been the first change he noticed in her. When she and the other delegates had come from the North and South Pole, her hair that had been in a braid with beaded loopies tied back into it had become a thing of the past. Instead, her hair had been let down, with two braids on either side of her face, anchored with delicately carved whale bone beads. Brows drawn in confusion, Zuko had asked Hakoda what the change was all about. With a steely glare and a scowl, Hakoda had responded to the Fire Lord that the new hair style symbolized her marriageable status. All in all, it was a sign that said 'I'm single, but willing!'

Hakoda had not been pleased. Zuko had felt a mix of feelings. After Mai, Zuko had not felt any inclination to try for something with another girl for a good, long while. Then, Katara: no longer a girl, but a woman.

Now, he didn't even want to touch the tangle of feelings balled up in his chest.

Blue, striped by thick black lashes, peered at him. Zuko, from his position on the floor at her feet (he had fallen when she stormed into his rooms and knocked him down unexpectedly with a massive wave) looked on with suspicion. Katara knelt down next to him and gently brushed the hair from his eyes with careful gestures. Zuko tried not to flinch when the cool graze of her fingers touched his feverish skin.

"Zuko," she murmured, hands lightly tracing his jaw. "What happened? I only want an explanation. That's all."

Zuko began to lean into her hand before he caught himself and jerked upright. He wasn't used to this; his short time with Mai had not been very affectionate. He struggled to understand the angle the Water Tribe girl was trying to work. Sweeten him up so he would tell her? Make him feel guilty for burning her fabric? Seduce him?

Spirits, he hoped it was the last one.

Katara leaned forward, pushing her weight onto the hand pressed to the expensive carpet next to his hip. She was clad in Fire Nation clothes. A red top, cropped short, with long billowy pants that reach the ground and conceal her legs to the ankle. A long strip of heavily embroidered fabric hung from around her hip. The only blue things on her were her grandmother's necklace and her eyes.

The tantalizing brown strip of her midriff taunted Zuko. He curled his fingers to withhold the urge to reach out and slip his arm around her there, tug her closer until her body was flush with his, capture those plump lips with his own and watch as her blue eyes glazed with desire-

He was distracted when her slim brown hand slid behind his neck and began to toy with the hair on his nape.

As a firebender, Zuko was never cold. His skin broke out in chill bumps.

Her big blue eyes implored him to answer her questions. She wriggled closer, her knees brushing his thigh. Zuko shut his eyes when they latched onto her breasts, swaying with her rolling movement. She leaned down, placing her fantasy-worthy lips next to his ear. As her other hand tugged him closer to her lips, her breasts brushed against his arm. In a sudden jolt, all of Zuko's blood rushed out of his head, to a distinctly different region.

"Zuko," she whispered into his ear, breath washing over the sensitive skin.

_I have faced down dragons! I can face down one waterbender! _

"Are you curious to know where this fabric was, Zuko?"

His mind, too hazy to comprehend what her words are, nodded absently. _Yes, just say my name like that again..._

She came closer, so that her lips actually brush his skin with the movement of her next words: "My underwear drawer."

Zuko's body went cold. He remembered, a flash of crystal studded cloth from the corner of his eye, as he perused, and groaned in despair. _Fool move on my part, having the curiosity and willpower of a child. I just HAD to look, just for a little bit, and now I'm in hot water, literally. _

Her hand was still playing with his hair, sifting through the black strands, curling it around her fingers, tugging it a little. She was making it difficult to concentrate on getting himself out of the conversation with his honor, and his natural manhood pride, intact.

His eyes flutter a little when she scraped her nails against his skin, rasping them over sensitive flesh.

"Maybe, if I tell Dad and Sokka, they can straighten it all out."

Zuko's eyes popped open, and he suddenly regained all of his faculties in a flash. The memory of what they did to the suitor who tried to watch her bathe looms in his mind like an implacable beast. They let him hang from the Fire Nation emblem flag, at the front of the palace, for eight hours before they allowed anyone to aid him. The man, without a stitch of clothing on and sunburned to a crisp in unimaginable places, had reportedly left the city and disappeared.

"Ah, I see that got your attention, Fire Lord." Katara sat up, withdrawing her fingers from him, and he felt slightly bereft without the cool glaze of her flesh against the heat of his own.

Katara uncrumpled the silk and smoothed the fabric over her knees, looking down at it thoughtfully. "You know," she said conversationally, "this fabric I ordered specially from an earthbender in Ba Sing Se. Cost me a fortune. But, you know, I figured that Suki deserved the best."

Zuko said nothing, and listened with an air of confusion. Suki? Why was the fabric for Suki?

"I mean, I guess Northern Water tribe tradition doesn't matter that much to the high and mighty Fire Lord. What difference is it to His Highness if one lowly Water Tribe girl ordered special fabric to make her soon to be sister-in-law's wedding dress? I mean, it's just a thousand year old tradition that the sister of the groom do it."

Zuko's head spun as he tried to factor in the foreign relations issues Katara could potentially cause because he couldn't control his reactions. He didn't really believe that she would cause him that much trouble, something that would affect many more people than just the two of them. She was smarter than that.

"It was an accident," he blurted. He dropped his head in his hands with a groan at the inadvertent admission, and ruthlessly shoved an image of a laughing Iroh from his mind.

A smile broke open like the sun after a storm on Katara's face. "So you were in my rooms!" She frowned. "And my underwear drawer. Why were you in there?"

Zuko looked up at her cautiously through black bangs. He was accustomed to going about in his lavish apartments without it bound and tucked away beneath his crown, but now he wished that he did. The image he probably presented to the waterbender was just like when he had been fighting a war nearly impossible to win, against his own father. Zuko doesn't want Katara to look at him and think of the gangly boy who hunted her for nearly two years before defecting to their side. He wants to see him at the man the war shaped him into: a Fire Lord, and someone who is finally worthy of her.

"Why do you think, Katara?"

Her brows crinkled, and he ached to smooth the puckered skin with his fingertips. "I asked you first."

He nearly laughed, which would have been a precarious thing to do. He recognized that voice: Katara, petulant after dealing with Sokka. Zuko nearly scowled. He didn't want her to think of him as her brother.

Katara kneeled there, silk smoothed over her lap, blue eyes staring at him and long, wavy hair slipping over her shoulders. She had lost the baby fat in her face and body, slimming down but also curving in juxtaposition, her figure so different from slender Fire Nation women, they were all tall with long legs and pale skin. Her plump lips rested over a pointed chin and a curved jaw, high cheekbones bringing the focus to her stunning eyes. Zuko had noticed, along with the rest of the men around, that Katara had grown into a woman.

She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was powerful, a master waterbender, and stubborn as an air bison. Her temper was legendary, and compassion even more so.

Even more than her physical beauty, her eyes shown with the soul contained within. Zuko burned to show her what she was to him, what she could be. _What she will be, _he decided with iron hard clarity. He was tired of watching and wanting, waiting for her to realize how he felt for her. His chest ached to show her how he felt, in all of its raw fury. _Let me love you, Katara._

Zuko sat up, so quickly Katara was knocked off balance and fell over backwards. His large body loomed over hers, broad shoulders blocking out the light streaming in from the skylight. His eyes gleamed like burnished gold in the light he shielded from her, burning with feverish intensity as they stared down at her.

Iron bands clap around her wrists, and were lifted above her head to be pressed into the plush carpet. Zuko's calloused hands- _a warrior's hands-_ encircled her wrists in unbreakable strength. Katara wriggled in futility, and when he took off one of his hands she bucked wildly, thinking he would be weakened. His grip didn't loosen one bit.

Zuko levered himself above her body with his free hand, keeping himself from laying flush to her. His knees laid between her legs, and Zuko struggled with himself not to lift down with his free hand and tug her body up to meet the cradle of his hips.

"I was in your rooms," he breathed softly, husky. He knew his voice was akin to sandpaper, and Katara's eyes widen at it, but he didn't worry about it. "Because I cannot control my urges."

Her forehead crinkles again, and Zuko clenched his free hand at its spot on the carpet. "What do you mean?"

"I was looting your underwear drawer, looking for a specific pair that rose a bit out of your pants a few days. The image was seared into my mind, and I had to find them."

At this point, he noticed Katara's heart was thumping so hard he could see the pulse jumping in her throat. He wanted to sink his teeth into the supple muscle that contracted as she swallows. Her body shifted and wriggled a bit.

"I found them, a little white pair, no more than a scrap, with ocean blue lace."

She blinked, and pursed her lips, but said nothing. Zuko grinned, and waved his trump card in her face. "I found other pairs, too."

Katara flushed dark, blood suffusing her cheeks and chest. The tempting flush spread down her shirt, and Zuko battled his curiosity to find out just how far it went.

With a triumphant grin, pure alpha male, Zuko lowered himself to his elbow, forearm pressed to the ground. He buried his head in the crook where her shoulder meets her neck, a small hollow that smelled more like the ocean than anywhere else on her body. Nuzzling it, she gave a soft little gasp. He sunk his teeth into the muscle that rose from her skin, and she gave a small cry, bucking against him. He swiped his tongue over the mark, a hot claim on her skin.

Leaning back, Zuko stared into her blue eyes, darkened with something Zuko hardly believed was there, yet rejoiced over. "My other finds were even more interesting."

"You had no right!"

"I had every right. I am the Fire Lord, and can order searches whenever I so please."

Her face shone with righteous fury. "You arrogant pig! Abusing your power to search through a girl's private things!"

Zuko lowered his lips to her ear, a parody of what she had done to him earlier. Oh how the tables had turned. He nipped the delicate shell, and soothed the hurt with a gentle kiss. "Tell me," he whispered, hardly breathing the words, "did you plan to wear the red pair, with the embroidered flames and lacy cutouts, for me?"

Katara froze, eyes wide with growing panic. "No-no!" she sputtered, renewing her struggle to escape.

"Liar."

"You don't know that! It could have been for someone else!"

Zuko froze over her body, his eyes searing into her. For several tense moments, he flicked his gaze from eye to eye, analyzing her. Then, he stood up with a rush, and swooped down to pick her up, bridal style.

As he marched from the room, Katara raged angrily. "What are you doing?!"

His golden gaze looked down at her heatedly, and she had to brace herself against the solid wall of his chest to keep from gasping.

"I'm about to wipe the memory of any other man who dared to touch you from your mind."

Zuko opened the imposing double door to his bedroom and stepped inside, kicking it shut with a resounding thud.

Now, Katara wishes she had waited and formulated a plan before rushing to confront Zuko. As he hauled her off like a caveman to his opulent bed, several thoughts fluttered through her mind.

The gangly boy who chased her and her friends with single minded intensity was no more; well, excepting the single minded intensity. He obviously has that right at the moment.

Other than that, he was very different. His body had filled out with muscle from rigorous training, toned and firmed in his chest, arms and shoulders. The natural leadership he always commanded had come to the forefront, his time as Fire Lord drawing it out. Zuko had become a man while she wasn't paying attention. She was paying attention now, though.

"Put me down!" she snarled ineffectually at the domineering man. Zuko spared a moment to smirk down at her, eyes liquid gold and amused.

"No problem," he said, before throwing her down on the bed.

Katara had a moment to sputter and demand her release before his weight sunk down on top of her, pushing her into the soft bed. Zuko's body acted as an anchor, keeping her there despite her flailing limbs and shouted curses.

"Release me!"

"Not right now." _Not ever._

Katara swallowed audibly as his hand slid up her ankle, achingly slow, to curl around her calf. He brought the unresisting limb over his hips, to curve it over his back. The new, much more intimate position had Katara's heart racing.

"Zuko, what are you doing?"

He looked down at her, eyes so gold and so bright in his dim room. The sun had begun to set only a few minutes ago, and the cloak of night was settling firmly around the palace as Zuko looked down at his quarry.

"Katara," he whispered, his palm fitting to the curve of her jaw to tilt her head up to meet his eyes. She was afraid of only a few things: giant spiders, face-stealing spirits, crazy Fire Nation princesses, her brother when he's hungry. But, the pure rawness of Zuko's eyes, shining with some emotion Katara can't put words to, frightened her more than anything else. His eyes are so hungry for something, something only she can give.

_Have to tell her. She has to know._

"Do you remember when I tied you to a tree?"

Surprised by his sudden change of topic, Katara answered, "Yeah. I told you to jump in a river when you asked me where Aang was."

Zuko smiled slightly, and his eyes flitted down to her collar bone, bared by the small Fire Nation top. He thanked the Spirits his tailors care nothing for modesty as he drew on every ounce of courage he possessed.

"That," he said slowly, looking into her eyes, burning, "is when I started to love you."

Katara froze, muscles locking up at his quiet declaration. Memories swirled through her mind at lightening speed, puzzle pieces fitting together in sudden understanding. Zuko, fighting off other Fire Nation soldiers; Zuko, looking at her strangely as she and the Avatar escaped his grasp once again; Zuko, so intense beneath Ba Sing Se, watching her with burning eyes; Zuko, meeting her eyes first as he walked into the light of he fire in the Western Air Temple; Zuko, watching her always; Zuko, arguing with Sokka in quiet corners, gazes flicking to her; Zuko, Zuko, Zuko. Always Zuko, always watching, always protecting, always waiting, always _loving._ v

"But you hated me then!"

"It was easier to hate you than to accept that I loved you. You were with my quarry, protecting him from me- I couldn't love you. But I did. But I do."

A multitude of thoughts, answers and responses and rejections and acceptances, rushed through her mind. _I thought you hated me, all that time. I didn't know, had no idea. _What came out of her mouth, though, was, "What about Mai?"

"She knew, so she left me."

Katara's eyes went wide. "You mean, she knew you...?"

"I told her, after I was crowned. She said she had always suspected. My willingness to leave her at a moment's notice, how I always chased the Avatar. She knew for sure after I took Azula's bolt in the Agni Kai."

Katara had to look away from him for a moment. Her eyes trained on the sliver of sky available through a part in the curtains. The sun had set completely, sometime between when he was staring at her and his confession. Stars studded the dark sky, so like the silk that sent her running to his rooms in the first place. Katara can hardly think of that right now.

Zuko loves her. The Fire Lord loves her, the daughter of the Southern Water Tribe chieftain. _No, _Katara thought. His status and her lack of one had nothing to do with this, the roiling emotion consuming them. He was Zuko; brave, compassionate, honorable, scarred, temperamental, passionate, suspicious, strong. She was Katara. The only thing that mattered in this moment, she realized, was she and him. Katara and Zuko. Nothing else mattered.

He was associated with so many things in her mind, fire and life and war and love. His firebending was the antithesis to her waterbending. Yet, can fire exist without water? Water quenched fire, fire vaporized water. Sun and Moon, light and dark, heat and cold. Fire and water, Zuko and Katara.

How could she love him in return? Did she love him in return? His nation was the one that had caused her mother's death, her father's imprisonment. Zuko himself had chased her and her friends to the ends of the earth, to regain something that cannot be given, only earned. He had killed people before, some of them her people, the son of the man who sought to take over the world.

But, his flaws made him Zuko, made him loveable. He protected her with his own body, taking the killing blow from Azula. He defected to the right side, to save the lives of so many people while sacrificing his own family's love. He faced down dragons, to help Aang and himself learn how to firebend without anger or hatred clouding their minds. He refused to fight the father he loved in an Agni Kai, earning himself a scar and shame. Zuko had fought so much, surrendered so much, for the peace the world had today. His flaws made him something that Katara could love. They symbolized what he was, and how that had made him what he is.

Katara realized, looking at the stars, that to truly love something, you had to love it for its flaws as well as its perfections. Loving something despite its flaws was not love.

Zuko hovered above her uncertainly, expecting her rejection and preparing himself for it. He was so used to it, from his family and from everyone around him. The brand of shame on his face was rejection burned onto his heart forever. He was a fool, to expect anything from Katara. He began to withdraw himself from her, face closing off.

She reached out to stop him, turning to face him. Her hands lifted from the bed, touching either side of his face hesitantly. Her big blue eyes stared at him, searching his face for something. She must have found it, because a small smile graced her features.

"Zuko," she whispered, drawing his face down until it nearly touched hers. He held his breath, hardly believing what was happening, so scared of the words coming out of her mouth. All of his earlier bravado had fled with his admission, cowering behind the force of his fear. Katara was everything he wanted, the only thing he wanted. He wanted her with a fierceness that caused everything else to shrink beneath its might. His love burned a hole in his heart every time he saw her, laughing and smiling and oblivious to the painful emotion setting fire to his heart.

How could she love someone like him? The killer of her people, her mother. Scarred and used and rejected, humiliated, by his own father. What must she see when she looks at him?

"When I see you, I think of love."

His heart froze its panicked beating in his chest, frozen at her words.

"You loved your father, despite how he treated you. You loved your mother, you loved your people. You even grew to love Aang enough to help him save the world. Oh, Zuko," she sighed, leg tightening around his waist. He hardly noticed.

"You are so brave, so passionate, so honorable." Zuko indrawn breath kick-started all of his organs, sending them racing. The honor she said he had was so much more satisfying than any he could have gleaned from his father.

"I think I love you too." Katara drew in a breath, gathered her courage. "No, I _know _I love you. I have since you held me after we confronted my mother's killer, together. You told me it was okay, that letting him go was so much stronger than killing him. You saved me from becoming a killer, and saved me again when your sister tried to kill me."

"What about Aang?" he asked huskily, hardly believing the words filtering through his ears. The small, grey eyed boy was very distant in his mind, but he had to ask.

Katara smiled. "He likes Toph, even if he can't admit it to himself yet. Things broke off between us before we came here."

"Do you still love him?" his heart ached when he asked.

"No, I love you."

Zuko's eyes fluttered closed at her words. Without opening them, unable to bear her reaction, he tilted his head so his scar was visible in the moonlight. "Even...?"

Katara drew him even closer, so her lips brushed his with her words. "Zuko, I love _you. _All of you. Your good parts, your bad parts, your triumphs and your fails, your jagged edges and your scars." She brushed a kiss over his scarred check, and he shuddered in her hands.

She drew back so she could stare him dead in the eyes, the blue consuming everything Zuko had, drowning him willingly. He looked so afraid, still afraid, after all she had said to him. His body was still tense, had gotten tenser with every word she spoke.

"I love you, Zuko. I love you."

She pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

His body tensed impossibly more for a moment, and then broke. He sagged against her body, hands sweeping up her sides to clutch the back of her neck and the side of her face, holding her tenderly. His lips firmed, angled, pulling her deeper into an embrace she never wanted to escape. She gasped when he tugged her roughly, twisting onto his side to get closer to her, slip an arm under her waist to push her chest into his. He used that moment to thrust his tongue into her parted lips, sweeping a hot claim over her mouth with lips, teeth and tongue. Katara eagerly reciprocated, her own claiming helped along with nails, scratching his back and twisting in his hair.

It felt so _right,_ to be like this with Zuko. She could hardly believe she was in love with the angry Fire Nation boy who had stepped off his ugly metal boat in the South Pole to demand the Avatar, that he loved her in return. But, he wasn't that boy anymore; he was a man, one who loved her and deserved her love in return.

After an eternal second, they pulled back for breath. She watched him pant through heavily lidded eyes, panting herself. She threw the leg not clamped under his body over his hip, tugging him into the cradle of her hips. He stiffened and hissed when the hot steel of his arousal pressed against the palpable heat of her. A flush stole over Katara's face, but she persevered through her nervousness, instinct guiding her motions.

"Katara," Zuko said, wonderingly, eyes flicking over legs strewn across his body to the slim hand on his shoulder to the blush on her cheeks, lighting on her eyes last. The strong planes of his face were illuminated by the light of the moon filtering through the crack in the curtains, eyes gold coins reflected. His strong jaw cast angled shadows against his chest, jagged bangs concealing part of his eyes. His face held a mixture of astonishment, wonder, joy, love, and a slight hint of nervousness.

"You will be my first," she blurted nervously, then blushed furiously. She hid her face in his chest, refusing to look up at him. He shook with silent laughter, and Katara scowled against the thick muscles and robes of his chest, but refused to look up.

"Is that a command, or a request?" Zuko asked, own nervousness forgotten as he looked at the small waterbender cradled to his body. She fit perfectly.

Katara tilted her head enough to glare at him, but not enough to reveal her entire face. "Neither," she said, growl muffled by his robes. "Just stating that I'm a virgin."

"You won't be my first," he said before thinking. When her face went blank, about to be filled with either anger or even more nervousness, he hurried to speak before he landed in hot water. Both emotions, he knew, would get him in trouble.

"You will be the first that matters, though."

Katara looked thoughtful. "Who was you first?" she asked him carefully.

Zuko shrugged. "Some girl Uncle and I met along the road, named Song. I stole an ostrich-horse from her."

Katara frowned. "You had sex with a girl, was probably her first, and then stole her animal?"

Zuko, detecting trouble ahead, only nodded hesitantly.

Her frown deepened. "You are such a guy! It's a good thing I don't have a story like that to share about losing my virginity, if so it would probably be about Jet-" She clamped her mouth shut with an audible click.

Zuko, incredulous now, demanded, "_Jet?!"_

He plowed on before Katara could respond. "You mean insane, rebel leader, stupid grass chewing Jet?!" Zuko scowled murderously. "Did he touch you? Did he?"

"No, he didn't touch me, Zuko-"

He interrupted, face darkening to a thunderhead. "Jet," he muttered darkly. "That idiot couldn't put his cock in a girl if his mother sat at his side and directed him."

"Zuko!"

Unheeding of her surprised exclamation, he continued. "He was probably no bigger than my pinky finger, with the skill of a bumbling new-born ostrich-horse!"

"He was a good enough kisser," Katara muttered acidly.

Zuko's scowl deepened even further. "You said he didn't touch you!"

Katara blinked at him innocently. "Kissing counts?"

"Yes!"

"Then I suppose he did touch me."

Zuko flipped them, so Katara was on her back with him above her once more. He scowled down at her, angered even more by her faint amusement. "I'll show you kissing," he said waspishly, rasping the words in a voice that made Katara shudder.

He attacked her furiously with mouth and hands, gripping her hips and jerking them to his with one hand while his other hand busily unclasped his thick robes. They pooled around his waist, baring his chest to Katara's delighted eyes and hands. Chiseled muscle arrowed down to disappear in a cut vee beneath the remainder of his robes tantalizingly. He knelt down, pressing his bare chest to Katara's chest, hot flesh meeting. She moaned and smoothed her hands over his shoulders and down his back, clutching the thick ridges of muscle over his shoulder blades when he nipped her lip with his teeth.

"Zuko," she moaned, arching into his touch when he ran his hand over her fluttering stomach. He tugged at the broad strip of fabric concealing her breasts and it unraveled. Katara blushed heavily and immediately covered herself.

"Stop that," he rasped. "You're beautiful, everywhere."

He drew her resisting arms out of his way, unable to tear his eyes away from the supple flesh bared. Unlike Fire Nation women, Katara had large breasts, with enticing brown skin and darker brown tips. He slid his rough palms over the sides, and Katara shuddered. Her blush was staining her cheeks dark red, the flush reaching to the tops of her breasts. Zuko grinned, curiosity fulfilled. _So that's how far it goes._

Katara whimpered when his hands closed over her breasts fully, rough hands grating over her sensitive peaks with unbearable slowness. "Zuko," she gasped, placing her hands over his to still them. He tore his eyes away from her chest to look at her wide, panicked eyes. "We can't!"

He frowned, not liking where this was going. "Why not?"

"We aren't even betrothed, much less married!"

"Katara," Zuko said in admonishment, surprised at this worry. "When I said I love you, and you returned the feeling, that made you _mine. _Nothing so... simple, or weak, as marriage can tear you from me. If you want marriage, I will gladly give it to you. But you need to know you are _mine, _now and forever, marriage or not."

"Possession goes both ways, Sparky," Katara said, adopting Toph's nickname for Zuko. "If I'm yours, you are mine too. And I don't share."

Zuko grinned widely, a rakish grin that lit his eyes mischievously. "Sharing isn't my forte either." His expression darkened suddenly. "I will kill anyone who touches you."

With his intoned words, so starkly possessive, Katara felt a flush of heat in her lower belly. "I can think of a few things I would rather be doing right now than talking about that," she said, gazing at him with unabashed lust.

Zuko grinned again, good humor returned, and gently moved her hands away from his. "Me too," he said, before lowering his head to her breasts.

Katara gasped in surprise, and then moaned when he nipped the underside of her breast. He assuaged the small hurt with a flick of his wicked tongue, causing Katara to wonder what else he could do with it. She tangled her fingers in his hair, sifting through the thick, silky locks. She jerked a bit hard when Zuko latched onto her peak, and he growled against her skin, causing it to vibrate pleasantly. She smiled and jerked again, causing another growl. Zuko looked up with burning eyes the second time, and she smiled bigger while mouthing 'sorry' insincerely.

She jerked again when Zuko bit her, and he let up looked at her again. She was smiling even wider now, happy with her newfound ploy. "Clever, are you?" he asked the lusty waterbender, bared to the waist in his big bed. She made a very pleasant picture, laid back in Fire Nation red and black silk, blue eyes a sharp juxtaposition, wavy hair splayed out wildly around her. He grinned himself when he thought of the one thing that could make it better.

Zuko sat up, pinning down her hips with his weight, and reached up. Katara's eyes were locked onto his stretching muscles, his arms bulging as he used them. She was sufficiently distracted when he snagged the golden rope holding his bed-drapes back, didn't even notice when part of them fell to conceal the bed. She did snap her attention back when he began to tie the rope around her wrists.

"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously, trying to tug her hands from his grip.

"Making you play nice," he answered, superior strength holding her to his will. He bound her wrists together with a few more knots. Holding them with one hand, he reached up to snag another rope. Katara stared at his muscles again for a moment before shaking her head back to the present. _That won't work twice, _she snarled to herself.

"Don't even, Zuko!" she yelled when he pulled her body up to the headboard. He only grinned wider before looping the rope around her wrists and then sliding it through a cutout on the giant headboard. Katara suspected the cutout had been placed there by his predecessors for precisely that reason.

She snarled and jerked her body against her restraints, eyes furious. Her breasts bounced with the movement.

"Do that again," Zuko rasped, eyes locked on her chest.

Katara went unnaturally still in refusal.

Zuko quirked a brow at her. "Bitter, are we?" he asked amusedly.

Katara glared sullenly, hair draped over her shoulders. Zuko had been right; she did look quite fetching tied up in Fire Nation gold, half dressed with Fire Nation red and black strewn around her in rumpled silk sheets. The moon light slivered onto her face, brightening her eyes to an impossible degree.

Zuko's chest was so full, it was near to bursting. He was happier, he realized, than he had ever been before. Although clearly irritated at the moment, Katara loved him. He grinned so wide the tight skin of his scar stretched oddly. Katara's lips quirked, but she smoothed it down instantly. Zuko noticed her little slip and chuckled as he crawled over to her on hands and knees.

She kicked at him when he got close enough with a harsh demand to untie her. He chuckled again and grabbed her leg as it swung by, pinning it to the bed with one hand. He levered the other to the ground as well when she shrieked in outrage and flung it at his face. He transferred the pressure of holding her quivering limbs down to his elbows as he made his way up the vee her legs made to his final destination.

Katara twisted her hips out of the way when he reached for her. "Maybe, if you untie me!" she snarled, teeth bared as she evaded his hands.

Zuko had not lost his grin. Eyes glinting, he struck, quick as a sand-viper, clasping both hands onto her each of her hip bones. As his strong hands closed around her, Katara growled and tried to jerk up again. He resisted the movement, pushing her hips back to the bed. His elbows and forearms pinned her thighs and knees down while his hands held down her hips.

Although slightly amazed at the brute strength Zuko was displaying, another affirmation that he was a man now, her irritation was winning out. "I'll scream for the guards," she warned.

Zuko's gaze snapped to hers, gold eyes narrowed in suspicion. "As Fire Lord, they would not dare to enter my chambers."

Katara smiled blandly. "Even if, say, the Southern Water Tribe Princess, daughter of Chief Hakoda who was already warned them to run to my every cry, training buddies with Sokka who is my brother, the one girl who makes a point to bring them little snacks whenever she encounters them on her midnight walks, screams like a Fire Nation noble woman who had ice put down her dress?"

Zuko frowned. "Midnight walks? Katara, roaming the palace at midnight is dangerous, especially when you are a young woman, alone-"

Katara opened her mouth and unleashed her vocal cords. The scream echoed, causing a flock of birds to alight from the trees outside Zuko's window, caused the water on the floor in his sitting room to ripple and wave at the waterbender's ire, jerked the guards outside his rooms to immediate attention.

Zuko barely had time to throw a silk sheet over Katara's half naked body and leap away from her before several guards stumbled into his innermost chambers, eyes wide and hands tight on their swords. "Fire Lord Zuko, we heard Princess Katara scream!"

Seeming to finally notice what they had walked in on, the main guard bumbled to a stop inside the door. His eyes traveled between Zuko's bare chest, robes pooled around his waist, to the red strip of fabric Katara had been wearing crumpled on the floor. Lastly, his eyes landed on the enraged waterbender, hands tied to the headboard above her head and silk sheet partially covering her. Katara jerked against her bonds and the sheet slipped a little. The guard averted his eyes quickly, looking at the ceiling as crimson stained his cheeks.

"Ah, we will just, uh, leave now, Fire Lord Zuko and-" he gulped. "Uh, Princess, ah, Katara."

One of the other soldiers snickered before he could hold it in. "There seems to be nothing wrong here," the main guard grumbled while glaring at the snickering guard. He clapped a hand over his mouth, trying to withhold his laughter.

"Seems to be something very right," mumbled another guard under his breath.

Zuko's eyes narrowed when the guard trying to withhold his snickers burst into raucous laughter, bending over halfway to prop his hands on his knees.

The main guard motioned, and the one who had made the comment slipped his arms under the laughing soldier's arms to haul him out of the room, heels dragging on the floor. His laughter did not lessen, and heightened incredibly when the guard hauling him away muttered, "What I wouldn't give for a pliant waterbender tied to my bed, 'specially one that looks like that."

The main guard gulped at Zuko's expression and bowed at the waist. Without releasing his bow, he left the room walking backwards. "I apologize, Fire Lord Zuko, for interrupted your, uh, um, activities-" loud laughter, now from both of the guards, interrupted him. With a sour look out of the corner of his eyes at his comrades, he disappeared. The door was slammed shut with a hollow thunk.

"I hate men!" Katara said, loud enough for the guards to hear. Their laughter increased considerably, nearly drowning out the main guard's chastising remarks.

"Do you understand what's going to happen now?" Zuko asked, fury and amusement battling in his eyes. He was still facing the door, and his hands clenched by his sides.

Katara just looked at him.

"Rumors, Katara! Those guards won't be able to keep their mouths shut about finding you in my, Fire Lord Zuko's, bed! Imagine, Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, in the Fire Lord's bed!"

Katara smiled smugly. "Now you _have_ to marry me."

Her smug tone made Zuko turn to face her. "I had planned on it anyway, _Sugar Queen._" Katara frowned when he used Toph's nickname. "Now, all you've done is caused rumors about your virtue to circulate, and it will make the wedding look like a sham."

"I don't care what other's think about us. I know the truth, and I'll see to it that anyone who matters knows as well," she said, with a stunning simplicity. Zuko looked at her, flabbergasted at her easy acceptance. Her next words made his fists tighten in anger once more, however.

"You should release me before I scream loud enough for the entire palace to hear," Katara said. "Marriage or not, I don't think a wedding would protect you from my brother and father."

With an irritated snarl, Zuko flew across the bed to clap a hand over her opening mouth. "Don't even think about it," he growled.

She bit his hand, but Zuko just raised a brow at her defiance. His eyes went hot, and he said huskily, "I can think of much more entertaining things for you to do with your mouth."

Lust flashed in her eyes, but ire battled it. Zuko threw the sheet off her body, other hand still covering her mouth. Without breaking his heavy lidded gaze from hers, he placed his hand over her waist and then slid it up her body. His rough, calloused hands felt unlike anything Katara had ever felt before, a reminder that Zuko was a _man, _not some fumbling boy like Jet had been for her first kiss. Katara had never felt more feminine than she did at that moment, when Zuko's body dwarfed hers in the moonlight now streaming in through the skylight high overhead. His rough hands and wicked gaze made her feel so alive, and the full moon made her skin tingle unbearably, until she could hardly hold onto the remnants of her thoughts, much less her anger.

She arched into his palm as it roughly closed over breast, and only gasped when his hand left her mouth to cover the other breast. Zuko growled deep in his throat, lowering his head to swipe his tongue over one peak, before latching onto it and sucking it into his mouth. He pressed it to the roof of his mouth and flicked his tongue, making Katara cry out. Her legs wrapped around his back, tightening with every flick.

He moved his mouth to her neglected breast, taking the nipple in his mouth like he had the other while his fingers manipulated its twin in time to flicks of his tongue. Katara mewled under his ministrations, writhing her hips. He pinned them with his other hand, and nipped her with his strong white teeth.

"Zuko!" Katara whisper-moaned.

He looked up at her with a hungry gaze and flipped his bangs out of his burning gaze. He turned his attention to her mouth, nipping, licking, and sucking her lips until finally claiming her mouth with a deep kiss that left Katara reeling. Her head lolled back against the headboard as Zuko quickly stripped her of her pants, spreading her pliant legs wide. He pressed a kiss to the underside of her knee and Katara hissed. Places she had never known were erogenous zones were quickly being found by Zuko's talented mouth.

When Zuko placed his mouth so close to her center, Katara shuddered at his hot breath and tried to draw away. "Zuko, I can't, no-"

"Why not?" He asked bluntly.

"It's _embarrassing," _she hissed, cheeks and breasts flushing enticingly.

"Katara, you are beautiful, everywhere." Zuko slipped his fingers inside the silky fabric concealing this last secret from his gaze. Katara tried to twist her hips out of his grip again, and he growled threateningly.

"Not _there, _though!" Katara's heart was fluttering, partly from anticipation and partly from embarrassment. He truly didn't want to do _that,_ did he? "Those are so- so gross!"

Zuko grinned wryly. "You just think that because you're a girl. Men find them very pretty."

Katara flushed even more. "Zuko!"

With a shrug, he said dryly, "Well, they are pretty. All nice and slick-"

"_Shut up!_"

Zuko grinned and pulled her undergarment off while she was distracted. Katara gasped when she felt the cool air around her bared skin, and shivered violently when it went from cold to burning in half a second. _Do all firebenders breath hot air, is it a thing? _She wondered, half hysterically from arousal and nerves. _Or is it just Zuko, displacing all the hot air in his empty skull? _

She screwed her eyes shut when she felt his indrawn breath of surprise. _I knew it!_ she though angrily. _I WOULD have the one strange vagina he has seen. Figures! Perfect. Just freaking perfect. _

"Katara... where is your hair?" Zuko sounded breathless. Katara inched one eyes open to check his expression. Instead of disgusted, he looked... aroused?

_Men are so confusing! _

"In the South Pole, we have to shave down there once we start to get monthly bleedings, so the blood doesn't freeze into the hair and everything and-" she rambled, trying to distract herself from her nerves.

Once she answered his question, Zuko had tuned out. His focus was solely on the treasure before him. Bare of all hair, Katara's center was before him, dusky skin giving way to pink, all slick for _him. Because of him._ He had never been so proud; to make Katara feel this way... Zuko nearly embarrassed himself at his own reaction, jerking in his robes like an untried boy. Then his eyes alighted on something nearly more fascinating.

Katara stuttered to a stop when he ran a thumb over her mark. "What is this?" he asked, sounding half strangled.

She looked down. He was staring at her tattoo with a strange expression. "A tattoo."

"Why?" he demanded breathlessly, unable to tear his eyes away from it. 'It', such a blasé term for something so fascinating, was a crescent moon, surrounded by vines sprouting strange flowers. Twined around the moon was a dragon, sinuous body curved around and around until its whiskered face was higher than the tip of the moon. It's head was curled downward, until its snout connected lightly with the moon's downward point. The vines and flowers created a circular barrier around the image. The dragon's tail leeched into the vines until they became one. The dragon and moon image was only the size of a coin, the coiling vines and flowers increasing it by a small margin. It was placed just on the inside of her inner thigh, below the crease where the separate limb met her lower middle.

Katara shifted, nearly able to feel his gaze burning into her skin. "I got it when I became a Master Waterbender. We all get tattoos, although my being a woman made it difficult to decide what kind and where to place it. Men get it on their hip bone, and their's is a full moon with a dragon inside it."

Zuko brushed his thumb over it wonderingly. Such intricate detail, a master had truly drawn this on her skin. "Why is yours different?"

"Well, it had been so long since they had had a warrior female waterbender, that it warranted something special. Of course, only me, the tattoo artist, and the designer know about it."

"Who designed it?"

Katara sounded a little sad when she said, "Yue."

Zuko nodded, remembering the girl who had become the new moon spirit. "She did an excellent job."

It was so lifelike, that Zuko half imagined the tiny claws on the dragon's paws were digging into Katara's skin, and the dragon seemed to regally blink at him when he ran his thumb over it again. Katara sighed when he did so, so he did it again.

"My skin is sensitive there," she admitted grudgingly.

Zuko looked at her when he pressed a small kiss to the tattoo. "Is it, now?" he asked lightly when her body shook.

Returning his attention to her womanhood, Zuko grinned. He had had his culture shock for the night; now, it was her turn.

When he pressed his mouth to her, she arched with a loud moan. Zuko would be surprised if his guards did not hear it.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" she asked with trepidation.

"Pleasing you," he said, sliding his hands beneath her buttocks to lift her closer to his mouth.

"Zuko-" she started hesitantly, cutting off with another moan when he slid his tongue along her velvety skin.

Zuko settled down to feast, not heeding Katara's muffled hesitations. He flicked his tongue against a bud at the apex of her slit, and she jumped, shrieking. "What was that?" she demanded. "What did you just do?"

Zuko grinned against her flesh. "Never played with that before, love?" he asked teasingly.

Katara softened only slightly when he called her an endearment. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she huffed.

Zuko lapped at her, and all thought fled Katara. She mewled and ached and slid against his mouth, using her hip movements to glean any hard contact she could from Zuko. He slid a hand out from under her body to press the flat of his thumb against her bud while he thrust his tongue into her. Katara yelled his name, and he filled with male satisfaction.

_Oh, just wait, _he thought with pride. Then, he concentrated his firebending, right _there._

Katara jerked with a jolt and a groan when Zuko's tongue heated up perceptibly. "Spirits," she moaned, rocking her hips against his wicked mouth. She ached to run her fingers through his hair. "Untie me, Zuko!"

He growled against her flesh, and Katara whimpered. His eyes flicked to hers, and the burning gold held her gaze as he thrust the thick muscle of his tongue deeper than before, pressed his thumb slightly harder, and then sent a tiny bolt of lightening through that one finger, his thumb.

Katara bowed off the bed, mouth opened on a soundless scream, before convulsing. Zuko felt her clench against his mouth, and nearly groaned. He imagined that vice-like grip around his cock and nearly lost his seed right there.

Zuko pulled himself from the cradle of her hips, trailing his fingers up her wet slit as he moved up her body. He gave her an open mouthed kiss, letting her taste herself as she came down from her high, and pinched her breast roughly with one hand and as he drove two of the fingers of his other hand deep inside her. He curled them, tapping against _that spot, _and Katara screamed.

Her body shook violently and she threw her head from side to side, tugging hard on her bonds as her muscles fluttered and ecstasy laced her veins. The water in the other room froze so suddenly it shattered into a million bits, becoming frozen bits of crystal on the dark carpet. Katara felt the tiny droplets on the skylight and froze them into hard pinpricks, cracking the thick glass and causing it to shatter as well. The small bits of glass rained on the couple entwined on the bed.

As glass bounced off his skin, Zuko laughed, a deep rolling sound Katara had only heard once or twice, and never in the tone it was in now. It was as intoxicating as the bare moonlight spilling across her skin now.

Zuko shifted to his knees and grasped the sheets. Katara lifted her hips up as well, so her body did not hold the sheets down. He swept them off the bed, taking the small shards of glass with them. "So you won't get cut later," he said at her glance.

Bolstered by the power of the pure moonlight shining on her skin, Katara called to the water she had thrown at Zuko earlier. It came at her call, sliding under the thick door. She directed with to slice her restraints. It did so easily, cutting them like butter. Katara swiveled her wrists, stretching her arms out in front of her.

She released the water onto Zuko's head. "You need a cold shower," she said acidly, examining the bulge under his robes.

Zuko sputtered, black hair slicked to his face. A water droplet dangled on the end of his nose and Katara laughed. "Something wrong, Sparky?"

Unexpectedly, Zuko smiled. Katara watched suspiciously as the lazy, wicked grin curled his lips. "Something is _right,_ Sugar Queen," he purred sinfully, broad shoulders looming over her as he twisted his body to curve over hers. She put her arms around his neck obediently when he moved them, watched with suspiciously aroused eyes as he traced her lips with one finger. "Very right." He steamed the water from his skin, the hot gas wafting across her sensitized skin.

Zuko kissed her slowly, lazily, a slow burn instead of passionate claim. He gently tugged her bottom lip with white teeth before sliding his tongue down the column of her throat, nipping the skin before clamping his teeth down on the supple muscle between her neck and shoulder. He sucked hard, determined to make his mark. Katara smoothed her hands over his shoulders with a sigh, knees falling open to give him more room for his big body.

"Zuko," she sighed, pushing lightly at his shoulders. He looked up at her, stark hunger glazing his eyes. "Lie on your back," she whispered shyly, eyes looking anywhere but at his as she pushed harder on his shoulders and chest.

He complied, anticipation and confusion curling in his stomach. "Katara?" he asked as she levered herself onto her knees beside his body. She placed a stomach against his abdomen to brace herself, and smiled when she felt the strong muscles contract against her palm. _My Zuko, _she thought, perusing his muscled, scarred body. _My strong, scarred Zuko._

She feathered her fingers over a star-shaped scar on the center of his chest. "You got this one saving me," she said, looking at him through lowered eyelashes. He only nodded, entranced by her hand touching him in the moonlight. It glinted off her dusky skin, shinning on her tattoo and blue eyes.

She pressed a kiss to the scar, and he jumped. With a smile, she pressed him back to the bed. It was a farce, they both knew; if he wanted up, he would get up. But he settled back at her behest.

Her fingers fluttered over another scar curiously. "Where did you get this one?" she asked, tracing the thin silver slice across his abs.

"A dagger, from the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se."

"This one?" she asked, hands moving to a short, thick slash below his ribs.

"Sokka, and his idiotic boomerang."

It was a jolt to her system, remembering that once this man spread out for her used to be her enemy._ Not anymore,_ she thought. _Never again._

"Take these off," she said, tugging at his robes. He hurriedly did as she asked, until all that separated him from her was thin silk pants. He was clearly outlined against them, jutting proudly. Katara swallowed her nerves.

"These too," she said huskily.

Zuko did so, more slowly. He drew loose the drawstrings, strong yet nimble fingers sliding the red silk over his hips. It caught on his erection, and Katara's breath caught in her chest when he lifted the silk up and over himself, until it was off completely, flung off one ankle to land somewhere on the other side of the room.

Katara's stomach clenched at her first sight. He was _big. I guess the rumors are true,_ she thought. _Fire Nation men, especially benders, are big._

It was easy to see, the moonlight from the skylight shining down. Katara was a virgin, but she was also a healer; she had seen cocks before, but usually the man was unconscious.

Zuko was Fire Nation pale, all over, she had now discovered. His cock rose proudly from a nest of black hair, a thick vein up the side pulsing. A flared head was flushed with blood, and weeping pre-cum.

Katara was harshly aroused, yet so nervous she could hardly breathe. She looked at Zuko from the side.

He was staring at her. She blushed.

"Katara," he said then, grabbing her arm to get her attention. She looked at him hesitantly, hoping he wouldn't see how nervous and inexperienced she was. What if she couldn't please him? He was two years older than her, had much more experience under his belt. She was a bumbling girl compared to the Fire Nation vixens who had graced his bed.

"I love _you,_" he said. "Anything you do will please me more than any other thing any other woman has done." Zuko grabbed her chin and lifted her head so he looked directly into her eyes. "I'm glad you're inexperienced. It means you will be mine, in every way."

"But what if-"

"Katara, _I love you. _I nearly burst like an untried boy when you just touched my chest. No one has that affect on me, except you."

"I love you too," she whispered, nerves fleeing beneath the shadow of his calm confidence. She reached out and curled her palm around him. He was hot, burning hot, and he jerked in her grip and moaned.

"Katara," he said, in a strangled voice. "You don't have to do this."

"I _want _to." She said firmly. "It's my turn to explore."

He laughed breathlessly. Taking that as permission to explore, she squeezed him a little. He moaned, and jerked his hips. Bolstered by his obvious pleasure, Katara began moving her hand in an up-and-down motion, squeezing slightly.

Zuko's hands clenched, and he propped himself up on his elbows to watch her. Her innocence was intoxicating, but as she became more confident in her movements and gleaned what he liked from the noises he made, she turned into a little waterbending vixen. She was naturally talented in bed, passionate and slow in turns. She swept her thumb over the tip, and he groaned.

She shifted her body so she was straddling his upper thighs and grinned at him wickedly. Her hand moved quicker, and she lowered her head. When she pressed a small kiss to the tip of his aching cock, Zuko yelled her name.

He stopped her when she moved to do it again. "One more time, and I'll come like an untried boy," he said.

She poked out her lip sulkily. With a deep rumble, Zuko leaned forward and took the pouty mouth with his own. His erection slid against Katara's bare thigh and she shuddered.

"Zuko," she said, grasping the back of his neck to stare into his gold gaze. She slid her fingers through his hair, the silky strands rubbing against her hand. "I need you now, Zuko."

Without breaking their gaze, Zuko gently pushed Katara down onto the bed. He lowered himself over her tentatively, propping himself up with his arms, next to her shoulders. "Put your legs around me," he directed. She complied, staring at him so trustingly it made his heart shake. "This will hurt at first," he warned when he was poised at her entrance.

She put her arms around his neck. "I know. I love you." She pressed a kiss to his scar.

Zuko began to enter her, slowly. She was so _tiny, _so _tight, _against him.

"Let's just get this over with," she snarled, before using her grip around his neck to push her hips up. He sank into her to the hilt suddenly, her hips crashing into his.

Katara's eyes screwed shut against the tinges of pain. Zuko gently lowered them back to the bed, keeping the connection so he would not cause any unwelcome movements inside her. "Why did you go and do that?" he asked, incredulous. Really, he supposed, he should have expected it. Katara had hardly ever done what he expected her to do.

"You were going too slow," she panted in quick breaths, eyes slitting open. "Anticipation was killing me."

"You will be the death of me," Zuko said, collapsing onto his elbows to place his head in the crook of her shoulder.

"I know. I love you," she said, sliding her fingers through his hair comfortingly.

"You're mine now, Katara." He said, pressing a kiss to her neck.

"I know," she said. "You're mine too. I love you."

"I love you too."

After a few minutes, Katara felt the pain had faded enough to move a little. She did so, wriggling her hips beneath his heavy weight. She gasped.

"What?" Zuko said, snapping to attention. "Are you in pain? Should I get out?"

"No!" Katara said, eyes wide. "I need you to move. _Now." _

Zuko glided out of her, achingly slowly. Katara shuddered as every inch was withdrawn, sliding from her body without a hitch. Katara sat up slightly, Zuko helping with one hand lifting her from behind her back, so she could watch. Zuko's cock slid, inch by wet inch, from her body, glistening in the moonlight.

"Zuko," she said, "faster."

He did as she said, pumping into her at a faster pace. Her hips moved to meet his thrusts, the air filling with their moans. Lightening arced through the air, mating with the silver light of the moon.

Katara gasped, muscles tightening around Zuko. _Is that a waterbender thing? _he though desperately. _Her muscles are like a vise, so damn tight! _

"_Zukozukozukozukozuko,_" Katara said, a mantra to accompany the wet glide of their bodies. He pistoned in and out, faster and harder, as her cries urged him on. The thick vein on the side of his cock scraped against her spot, making her shake and cry out louder.

"What are you?!" he demanded, clamping his hand around her neck and touching his forehead to hers. His body moved like a blur, in and out in and out. His eyes were two bright furnaces as they locked with her blue gaze.

"_Yours," _she gasped harshly. "_Yours, always, forever. And you are mine!"_

"Yesss," he hissed, and pressed his thumb onto her bud in praise. Katara arched off the bed, crying his name even louder.

"I love you, Zuko," she said, tears streaming down her face. He kissed them from her cheeks, knowing why she cried, overcome himself nearly to that point. His heart was so full, it strained against his chest, beat so fast he was sure it would burst.

"I love you too, Katara," he said.

Katara screamed, and all of the water in the corridor rushed into Zuko's room. It fled through windows, under doors, out of wash basins and glasses to hover in the air in shining droplets. Thousands of stars, made by Katara, hung in the air, glistening in the moonlight. Her muscles fluttered around Zuko's cock, tightening until he had trouble withdrawing from her body.

"Katara!" he yelled, before reaching his peak. He spilled like molten fire against her insides, scalding her ecstasy to a fever pitch. Lightning danced among the crystal droplets, electric blue branching out across the ceiling of the room.

The droplets vibrated as Katara had her third orgasm, brought on by Zuko's. They froze and rained down, clicking against the stone floor. None landed on the bed, testament to Katara's power.

Zuko fell heavily atop his lover, mashing his chest with hers. She slid her arms around his back to toy with his hair and tightened her legs. She enjoyed his heavy weight against her body, his warmth bearing her down into the bed.

They laid like that for quite awhile, not saying anything, just stroking each other's hair and available skin. Zuko got up eventually, padding off. Katara sat up to see, but he returned before she could move. "Lay down," he said, pushing her back. She obeyed instantly. When she realized she had obeyed so quickly, she sat up to berate him for ordering her around.

"Chastise me later," he pushed her back into the bed. "Right now, let me take care of you."

"Take care of me?"

Some splashing sounds, and then Katara felt a gentle stroke between her thighs. Zuko gently cleaned the virgin's blood from her with a soft towel, soaked in warm water. "I had to firebend to heat the water you bent," he said conversationally. "It still has not melted."

Katara blinked at him owlishly. "I waterbent?" she asked.

"I think it was around the third time you came," he said. His face was hidden by his hair from her view, but she could tell he was smiling.

"Don't be so smug," she said in reproach. "I won't be impressed unless you can repeat that performance."

Zuko looked up, lips still curled in a wicked grin. "So you mean to allow me a repeat performance?"

"I intend to give you as many times as you need to achieve a satisfactory repeat performance."

Zuko laughed, the same deep rolling laugh. "We'll have to wait for you to recover, but I am up to that."

Katara shifted, feeling a twinge of pain inside. "I suppose so," she said sullenly.

Zuko finished cleaning her and then laid at her side. He spooned her form against his from behind, curving his arm around her middle easily. She fit against him like a puzzle piece, perfectly. Katara tangled his feet with hers, and sighed in contentment.

"So," she purred wickedly, "how do you want to break the news to Sokka and my Dad?"

Zuko buried his head in her hair and groaned.

Katara laughed softly.

"Maybe," he said slowly, "about as much as you want to make the walk-of-shame in the morning?"

Katara frowned.

Zuko chuckled softly, earning a small pinch from Katara. "Not funny, Sparky."

"There are secret passages between my room and your sitting room," he said, still chuckling. "No walk of shame for you."

"Why does my sitting room have wepassages? Do all of the rooms have them?"

"...No..."

Katara smiled. "Confident, are we?"

"Hopeful, more like."

Katara snuggled deeper into Zuko's arms. He tightened them around her. "I love you, Katara."

"Love you too, Zuko."

When Katara woke up the next day, she was alone. She scowled until her outstretched palm touched a note on the bed. Reaching over, she picked it up and read it quickly.

_Meeting with important nobles. Breakfast is on nightstand. Secret passage is behind tapestry in bathroom. Present for you in your sitting room. _

_Love, Zuko. _

_p.s. I am keeping the flame underwear I found in your drawers. I want you in the white, crystal studded ones tonight. _

Katara smiled. Short and to the point. Like Zuko, except the short part. She laughed at her own wit before scrambling from the bed. Her clothes were a wreck, but his crumpled silk pants and a shirt she scavenged from his closet were perfectly fine, if way too big. After devouring all of the crisp, flaky biscuits and warm seasoned meat, Katara escaped through the dank passageway and into her own rooms.

The sitting room was filled with ten or so barrels. Another note was tacked to the one closest to the passageway door.

_Midnight silk for my midnight lover. _

Katara smiled happily and opened the barrel.

It was filled to the brim with the dark, crystal studded silk Zuko had burned rummaging through her underwear drawer. If every barrel was filled with the same silk, she could make Sukki a hundred dresses!

"Love you, Sparky," she said under her breath, hand fanning over the silk.

A sharp clearing of a throat made her look up suddenly. Her father was sitting on a chair, hands clasped in his lap. Sharp blue eyes roved over her, taking in Zuko's clothes.

"Well," he said slowly, running a hand over his dark hair, laced with grey. "I suppose I know where you were last night. All night, I presume?" he asked, with raised brows.

"Dad, I love him."

"Do you now?"

Katara began getting angry at his bland face. "Dad, you can't-"

Her door burst open, hitting the opposite wall with a bang. "Got him!" Sokka crowed, hauling Zuko in by the scruff of his Fire Lord robes. Her brother tossed him into the room, and Zuko stumbled before looking up. "He thought he could run, when he saw me coming with the other Water Tribe men! He only got a few feet before Pakku froze him to the ground though, and you should've seen the way his eyes bugged out-"

Sokka's eyes alighted on his sister, who was standing rigidly against the wall. His eyes flitted over as well, landing on Zuko's clothes before blazing up in a fury.

"YOU!" he yelled, pointing at the Fire Lord.

"Him," Hakoda said evenly.

"He-?" Sokka looked at Hakoda questioningly.

Hakoda nodded. "Yes."

Sokka turned to the offending Fire Lord. "YOU BETRAYED ME!" he wailed. "YOU WERE MY FRIEND, THEN YOU HAD SEX WITH KATARA!"

"SOKKA!" Katara screamed. Fed up with the men in her life, she waterbent the water from her wash basin in the corner and froze all three men to the ground.

"Me?" Zuko asked, eyebrows drawn in puzzlement as he looked down at his frozen feet.

"You!" she agreed.

"Un-freeze me this moment! Katara!" Sokka yelled. "I must avenge your virtue!"

"Shut _up,_ Sokka! Before I freeze your mouth shut too!"

"Katara, stop being childish," her father said.

"No, Dad," she said, turning on him. "_You stop being childish. _I fought a war, Dad. I'm not a kid anymore. I can make my own decisions, my own choices. And I choose Zuko."

"Do you now." He said, turning steely eyes on Zuko. "How do I know he didn't coerce you into this? He's older than you, more experienced with these things. Or at least, he better be."

"Dad, you must not know me very well to think someone could coerce me into anything."

"She's got a point," Sokka said. Hakoda eyed his son. Sokka gulped.

"I love your daughter, Chief Hakoda," Zuko said. When Hakoda turned a cold glare on him, he continued on, nonplussed. "I've loved her for a long time. I want your blessing to marry her. I want it, but I don't need it. I intend to marry Katara whether you want me to or not. I informed Sokka of my intentions a long time ago."

"Did you now."

Sokka gulped again. Loudly.

"Please, sire. Consider blessing this union."

Hakoda stared at Zuko, measuring him. Long minutes passed. "You have my blessing," he said, after an eternity. Zuko sighed in relief, but Katara knew better. She waited for the ball to drop.

"But you must do the Running of the Suitors."

Sokka crowed with glee, and Zuko frowned in suspicious confusion. "What's that?" he asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Just a trial to make sure you are worthy of my daughter, and able to withstand the Water Tribe."

Zuko looked at Katara for help, but she just firmed her mouth into a straight line and shook her head slowly. No help there.

"I hope you aren't embarrassed easily," Sokka said.

"Is that-?"

"Spirits, it is!"

"But why is he naked?!"

Zuko darted across the crowded palace gardens, without a stitch of clothing on. Finally, after an eternity of being gawked at by his nobles, he made it to the opposite side of the garden. He was afraid several women had fainted, and resolved to make a handwritten apology to everyone staying on the palace grounds at the moment. And a few nobles besides. He winced, hand already cramping.

"I- did-it," he panted harshly. He had never realized how large the gardens were. "Every path, splashed through every fountain, posed in front of every gaggle of women. Just as agreed."

Hakoda smiled blandly at the young Fire Lord. Zuko nearly flinched, seeing so much of Katara's devious expression in her father's eyes.

Pakku sprayed him with a barrage of ice water, soaking him from head to toe. Zuko yelped and leapt away in surprise. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"Harming her virtue before she was promised to you. Now, do it again. But this time, whenever you pass the women, I want you to stop and tell them that they should call you 'virtue-destroyer' from now on."

Zuko groaned and hung his head. He looked up when Sokka stepped up beside him. The other man had a fierce scowl on his face, and not a stitch of clothing.

"Why are you naked?" Zuko asked him.

"For not telling Dad about your intentions," Sokka growled, casting him an accusatory glare.

"You better appreciate this Katara!" Zuko yelled, a war-cry, before leaping back into the garden.

When the young Fire Lord had disappeared behind a curve in the path, and the first loud gasps arose from the women, Hakoda turned to his traitorous son. "You must tell every woman you cannot be trusted."

"Sukki is gonna kill me, and it'll be your fault. I hope your satisfied!" Sokka sprinted off, whooping and hollering.

Hakoda watched his son disappear as well, before dissolving into hysterical laughter. Pakku laughed as well, doubling over and wheezing harshly. "Brilliant, Hakoda!" he said, clapping the other man on the shoulder.

"Now, wherever did you come up with that 'Running of the Suitors' bit? And you did it on the spot, you said? Tell the story again, but describe Zuko's face more!"

"You see, it all started when this guard, laughing himself silly, approached me..."

_finis. _

Katara knew something was wrong the moment she stepped into her room and the smell of burned fabric assaulted her nose. With a twisting feeling in her gut, she began to search the room for the source. Her bed covers, if a bit more rumpled than she remembered, were okay. The curtains were still drawn tightly. A flash of blue silk hanging out of her drawer caught her attention and she groaned.

_The silk for Suki's dress!_

Frantically, Katara pulled the silk from the drawer and searched it. It was burned in several spots, singed pieces of silk floating to the floor with her rough movements. Katara's head thudded against the chest of drawers with a hollow thunk.

_Of course, the only thing I really need!_

How had it gotten burned? There are no candles in the room, and firebenders had no reason to search her underwear drawer. Aang had been in the city with Toph, and Zuko-

Katara snarled. _Zuko!_

It occurred to her that she might be rushing a bit blindly toward an unlikely culprit, but her mind had latched onto Zuko's face with a stubborn will. She knew the guards outside her rooms quite well; they would have let no one else in but their Fire Lord or the Avatar.

Her mind arrowed in on one thought and one thought only: _Zuko must pay_.

Zuko didn't know who decided blue was the most calming color in the world. Katara's eyes, a beautiful crystalline blue that only the Water Nation could have, shown with an inhuman fury that would not have been misplaced on the mug of a demon.

Katara stared straight into his eyes with unflinching intensity. Her straight white teeth, stark against her dark skin, were bared in a truly animalistic snarl. Zuko couldn't help thinking, even as dread slid down his spine, that Katara was pretty. She always had been, but during the years he had been dogging their heels in pursuit of the Avatar, she had truly come into her own. He just wished he could live to see it another day. Judging by her expression, he wouldn't.

Silently, Katara lifted a length of blue silk. The color, a deep cerulean blue, gleamed with small bits of crushed crystal, just like the night sky. It was an impressive bolt of fabric; and, undoubtedly, very expensive.

The bottom half was a tattered, singed wreck. Holes were burned into the fabric, and several pieces flaked off and fell to the ground as Katara held up the piece.

"There," she iterated slowly, oh so very slowly, "is only one firebender who could have done this. Ah ah ah," she said when Zuko opened his mouth to argue. "Aang is accounted for. He has an alibi. He and Sokka took a boy's day."

Zuko swallowed.

_I helped to defeat the Fire Lord, I learned fire bending from the last dragons and the last Sun Warriors, I am the newly crowned Fire Lord and ushered in a new era of peace along with the Avatar. I still cannot face down one angry female waterbender. _Zuko blinked his eyes several times, the golden glow concealed for a moment only to reappear.

"You have no proof it was me!"

_No! _He snarled to himself. _Don't let go of your temper! It's like putting blood in the water around a shark, with pretty blue eyes and a penchant for bending frozen water spikes. _

"There are no other firebenders who can enter my rooms, Zuko. The guards would have let no one else in."

Zuko cursed himself for putting guards on her rooms. It had become a necessity when the steady stream of suitors who crept into her rooms refused to abate. Apparently, her attitude had not been enough to dissuade them from seeking her hand. Zuko had to withhold himself from grinning when he thought of the racket that had caused him to come running to her rooms, along with the rest of her friends, when the first one had crept in. She had been angry enough to cow a dragon and make it whimper.

As her eyes stared, with unchecked fury and violence raging in them, Zuko realized that she was angrier now than she had been then.

There was no way he would tell her why he had been in her rooms though. Those blue eyes could not blaze bright enough to scare him into that dirty little confession.

Katara, beautiful, compassionate, honest Katara. _Unpredictable _Katara. Her tactic changed then. Those eyes softened, and a tremulous smile dimpled her cheeks. Lowering her eyes, she self-consciously tucked one dark braid behind her ear.

That had been the first change he noticed in her. When she and the other delegates had come from the North and South Pole, her hair that had been in a braid with beaded loopies tied back into it had become a thing of the past. Instead, her hair had been let down, with two braids on either side of her face, anchored with delicately carved whale bone beads. Brows drawn in confusion, Zuko had asked Hakoda what the change was all about. With a steely glare and a scowl, Hakoda had responded to the Fire Lord that the new hair style symbolized her marriageable status. All in all, it was a sign that said 'I'm single, but willing!'

Hakoda had not been pleased. Zuko had felt a mix of feelings. After Mai, Zuko had not felt any inclination to try for something with another girl for a good, long while. Then, Katara: no longer a girl, but a woman.

Now, he didn't even want to touch the tangle of feelings balled up in his chest.

Blue, striped by thick black lashes, peered at him. Zuko, from his position on the floor at her feet (he had fallen when she stormed into his rooms and knocked him down unexpectedly with a massive wave) looked on with suspicion. Katara knelt down next to him and gently brushed the hair from his eyes with careful gestures. Zuko tried not to flinch when the cool graze of her fingers touched his feverish skin.

"Zuko," she murmured, hands lightly tracing his jaw. "What happened? I only want an explanation. That's all."

Zuko began to lean into her hand before he caught himself and jerked upright. He wasn't used to this; his short time with Mai had not been very affectionate. He struggled to understand the angle the Water Tribe girl was trying to work. Sweeten him up so he would tell her? Make him feel guilty for burning her fabric? Seduce him?

Spirits, he hoped it was the last one.

Katara leaned forward, pushing her weight onto the hand pressed to the expensive carpet next to his hip. She was clad in Fire Nation clothes. A red top, cropped short, with long billowy pants that reach the ground and conceal her legs to the ankle. A long strip of heavily embroidered fabric hung from around her hip. The only blue things on her were her grandmother's necklace and her eyes.

The tantalizing brown strip of her midriff taunted Zuko. He curled his fingers to withhold the urge to reach out and slip his arm around her there, tug her closer until her body was flush with his, capture those plump lips with his own and watch as her blue eyes glazed with desire-

He was distracted when her slim brown hand slid behind his neck and began to toy with the hair on his nape.

As a firebender, Zuko was never cold. His skin broke out in chill bumps.

Her big blue eyes implored him to answer her questions. She wriggled closer, her knees brushing his thigh. Zuko shut his eyes when they latched onto her breasts, swaying with her rolling movement. She leaned down, placing her fantasy-worthy lips next to his ear. As her other hand tugged him closer to her lips, her breasts brushed against his arm. In a sudden jolt, all of Zuko's blood rushed out of his head, to a distinctly different region.

"Zuko," she whispered into his ear, breath washing over the sensitive skin.

_I have faced down dragons! I can face down one waterbender! _

"Are you curious to know where this fabric was, Zuko?"

His mind, too hazy to comprehend what her words are, nodded absently. _Yes, just say my name like that again..._

She came closer, so that her lips actually brush his skin with the movement of her next words: "My underwear drawer."

Zuko's body went cold. He remembered, a flash of crystal studded cloth from the corner of his eye, as he perused, and groaned in despair. _Fool move on my part, having the curiosity and willpower of a child. I just HAD to look, just for a little bit, and now I'm in hot water, literally. _

Her hand was still playing with his hair, sifting through the black strands, curling it around her fingers, tugging it a little. She was making it difficult to concentrate on getting himself out of the conversation with his honor, and his natural manhood pride, intact.

His eyes flutter a little when she scraped her nails against his skin, rasping them over sensitive flesh.

"Maybe, if I tell Dad and Sokka, they can straighten it all out."

Zuko's eyes popped open, and he suddenly regained all of his faculties in a flash. The memory of what they did to the suitor who tried to watch her bathe looms in his mind like an implacable beast. They let him hang from the Fire Nation emblem flag, at the front of the palace, for eight hours before they allowed anyone to aid him. The man, without a stitch of clothing on and sunburned to a crisp in unimaginable places, had reportedly left the city and disappeared.

"Ah, I see that got your attention, Fire Lord." Katara sat up, withdrawing her fingers from him, and he felt slightly bereft without the cool glaze of her flesh against the heat of his own.

Katara uncrumpled the silk and smoothed the fabric over her knees, looking down at it thoughtfully. "You know," she said conversationally, "this fabric I ordered specially from an earthbender in Ba Sing Se. Cost me a fortune. But, you know, I figured that Suki deserved the best."

Zuko said nothing, and listened with an air of confusion. Suki? Why was the fabric for Suki?

"I mean, I guess Northern Water tribe tradition doesn't matter that much to the high and mighty Fire Lord. What difference is it to His Highness if one lowly Water Tribe girl ordered special fabric to make her soon to be sister-in-law's wedding dress? I mean, it's just a thousand year old tradition that the sister of the groom do it."

Zuko's head spun as he tried to factor in the foreign relations issues Katara could potentially cause because he couldn't control his reactions. He didn't really believe that she would cause him that much trouble, something that would affect many more people than just the two of them. She was smarter than that.

"It was an accident," he blurted. He dropped his head in his hands with a groan at the inadvertent admission, and ruthlessly shoved an image of a laughing Iroh from his mind.

A smile broke open like the sun after a storm on Katara's face. "So you were in my rooms!" She frowned. "And my underwear drawer. Why were you in there?"

Zuko looked up at her cautiously through black bangs. He was accustomed to going about in his lavish apartments without it bound and tucked away beneath his crown, but now he wished that he did. The image he probably presented to the waterbender was just like when he had been fighting a war nearly impossible to win, against his own father. Zuko doesn't want Katara to look at him and think of the gangly boy who hunted her for nearly two years before defecting to their side. He wants to see him at the man the war shaped him into: a Fire Lord, and someone who is finally worthy of her.

"Why do you think, Katara?"

Her brows crinkled, and he ached to smooth the puckered skin with his fingertips. "I asked you first."

He nearly laughed, which would have been a precarious thing to do. He recognized that voice: Katara, petulant after dealing with Sokka. Zuko nearly scowled. He didn't want her to think of him as her brother.

Katara kneeled there, silk smoothed over her lap, blue eyes staring at him and long, wavy hair slipping over her shoulders. She had lost the baby fat in her face and body, slimming down but also curving in juxtaposition, her figure so different from slender Fire Nation women, they were all tall with long legs and pale skin. Her plump lips rested over a pointed chin and a curved jaw, high cheekbones bringing the focus to her stunning eyes. Zuko had noticed, along with the rest of the men around, that Katara had grown into a woman.

She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was powerful, a master waterbender, and stubborn as an air bison. Her temper was legendary, and compassion even more so.

Even more than her physical beauty, her eyes shown with the soul contained within. Zuko burned to show her what she was to him, what she could be. _What she will be, _he decided with iron hard clarity. He was tired of watching and wanting, waiting for her to realize how he felt for her. His chest ached to show her how he felt, in all of its raw fury. _Let me love you, Katara._

Zuko sat up, so quickly Katara was knocked off balance and fell over backwards. His large body loomed over hers, broad shoulders blocking out the light streaming in from the skylight. His eyes gleamed like burnished gold in the light he shielded from her, burning with feverish intensity as they stared down at her.

Iron bands clap around her wrists, and were lifted above her head to be pressed into the plush carpet. Zuko's calloused hands- _a warrior's hands-_ encircled her wrists in unbreakable strength. Katara wriggled in futility, and when he took off one of his hands she bucked wildly, thinking he would be weakened. His grip didn't loosen one bit.

Zuko levered himself above her body with his free hand, keeping himself from laying flush to her. His knees laid between her legs, and Zuko struggled with himself not to lift down with his free hand and tug her body up to meet the cradle of his hips.

"I was in your rooms," he breathed softly, husky. He knew his voice was akin to sandpaper, and Katara's eyes widen at it, but he didn't worry about it. "Because I cannot control my urges."

Her forehead crinkles again, and Zuko clenched his free hand at its spot on the carpet. "What do you mean?"

"I was looting your underwear drawer, looking for a specific pair that rose a bit out of your pants a few days. The image was seared into my mind, and I had to find them."

At this point, he noticed Katara's heart was thumping so hard he could see the pulse jumping in her throat. He wanted to sink his teeth into the supple muscle that contracted as she swallows. Her body shifted and wriggled a bit.

"I found them, a little white pair, no more than a scrap, with ocean blue lace."

She blinked, and pursed her lips, but said nothing. Zuko grinned, and waved his trump card in her face. "I found other pairs, too."

Katara flushed dark, blood suffusing her cheeks and chest. The tempting flush spread down her shirt, and Zuko battled his curiosity to find out just how far it went.

With a triumphant grin, pure alpha male, Zuko lowered himself to his elbow, forearm pressed to the ground. He buried his head in the crook where her shoulder meets her neck, a small hollow that smelled more like the ocean than anywhere else on her body. Nuzzling it, she gave a soft little gasp. He sunk his teeth into the muscle that rose from her skin, and she gave a small cry, bucking against him. He swiped his tongue over the mark, a hot claim on her skin.

Leaning back, Zuko stared into her blue eyes, darkened with something Zuko hardly believed was there, yet rejoiced over. "My other finds were even more interesting."

"You had no right!"

"I had every right. I am the Fire Lord, and can order searches whenever I so please."

Her face shone with righteous fury. "You arrogant pig! Abusing your power to search through a girl's private things!"

Zuko lowered his lips to her ear, a parody of what she had done to him earlier. Oh how the tables had turned. He nipped the delicate shell, and soothed the hurt with a gentle kiss. "Tell me," he whispered, hardly breathing the words, "did you plan to wear the red pair, with the embroidered flames and lacy cutouts, for me?"

Katara froze, eyes wide with growing panic. "No-no!" she sputtered, renewing her struggle to escape.

"Liar."

"You don't know that! It could have been for someone else!"

Zuko froze over her body, his eyes searing into her. For several tense moments, he flicked his gaze from eye to eye, analyzing her. Then, he stood up with a rush, and swooped down to pick her up, bridal style.

As he marched from the room, Katara raged angrily. "What are you doing?!"

His golden gaze looked down at her heatedly, and she had to brace herself against the solid wall of his chest to keep from gasping.

"I'm about to wipe the memory of any other man who dared to touch you from your mind."

Zuko opened the imposing double door to his bedroom and stepped inside, kicking it shut with a resounding thud.

Now, Katara wishes she had waited and formulated a plan before rushing to confront Zuko. As he hauled her off like a caveman to his opulent bed, several thoughts fluttered through her mind.

The gangly boy who chased her and her friends with single minded intensity was no more; well, excepting the single minded intensity. He obviously has that right at the moment.

Other than that, he was very different. His body had filled out with muscle from rigorous training, toned and firmed in his chest, arms and shoulders. The natural leadership he always commanded had come to the forefront, his time as Fire Lord drawing it out. Zuko had become a man while she wasn't paying attention. She was paying attention now, though.

"Put me down!" she snarled ineffectually at the domineering man. Zuko spared a moment to smirk down at her, eyes liquid gold and amused.

"No problem," he said, before throwing her down on the bed.

Katara had a moment to sputter and demand her release before his weight sunk down on top of her, pushing her into the soft bed. Zuko's body acted as an anchor, keeping her there despite her flailing limbs and shouted curses.

"Release me!"

"Not right now." _Not ever._

Katara swallowed audibly as his hand slid up her ankle, achingly slow, to curl around her calf. He brought the unresisting limb over his hips, to curve it over his back. The new, much more intimate position had Katara's heart racing.

"Zuko, what are you doing?"

He looked down at her, eyes so gold and so bright in his dim room. The sun had begun to set only a few minutes ago, and the cloak of night was settling firmly around the palace as Zuko looked down at his quarry.

"Katara," he whispered, his palm fitting to the curve of her jaw to tilt her head up to meet his eyes. She was afraid of only a few things: giant spiders, face-stealing spirits, crazy Fire Nation princesses, her brother when he's hungry. But, the pure rawness of Zuko's eyes, shining with some emotion Katara can't put words to, frightened her more than anything else. His eyes are so hungry for something, something only she can give.

_Have to tell her. She has to know._

"Do you remember when I tied you to a tree?"

Surprised by his sudden change of topic, Katara answered, "Yeah. I told you to jump in a river when you asked me where Aang was."

Zuko smiled slightly, and his eyes flitted down to her collar bone, bared by the small Fire Nation top. He thanked the Spirits his tailors care nothing for modesty as he drew on every ounce of courage he possessed.

"That," he said slowly, looking into her eyes, burning, "is when I started to love you."

Katara froze, muscles locking up at his quiet declaration. Memories swirled through her mind at lightening speed, puzzle pieces fitting together in sudden understanding. Zuko, fighting off other Fire Nation soldiers; Zuko, looking at her strangely as she and the Avatar escaped his grasp once again; Zuko, so intense beneath Ba Sing Se, watching her with burning eyes; Zuko, meeting her eyes first as he walked into the light of he fire in the Western Air Temple; Zuko, watching her always; Zuko, arguing with Sokka in quiet corners, gazes flicking to her; Zuko, Zuko, Zuko. Always Zuko, always watching, always protecting, always waiting, always _loving._ v

"But you hated me then!"

"It was easier to hate you than to accept that I loved you. You were with my quarry, protecting him from me- I couldn't love you. But I did. But I do."

A multitude of thoughts, answers and responses and rejections and acceptances, rushed through her mind. _I thought you hated me, all that time. I didn't know, had no idea. _What came out of her mouth, though, was, "What about Mai?"

"She knew, so she left me."

Katara's eyes went wide. "You mean, she knew you...?"

"I told her, after I was crowned. She said she had always suspected. My willingness to leave her at a moment's notice, how I always chased the Avatar. She knew for sure after I took Azula's bolt in the Agni Kai."

Katara had to look away from him for a moment. Her eyes trained on the sliver of sky available through a part in the curtains. The sun had set completely, sometime between when he was staring at her and his confession. Stars studded the dark sky, so like the silk that sent her running to his rooms in the first place. Katara can hardly think of that right now.

Zuko loves her. The Fire Lord loves her, the daughter of the Southern Water Tribe chieftain. _No, _Katara thought. His status and her lack of one had nothing to do with this, the roiling emotion consuming them. He was Zuko; brave, compassionate, honorable, scarred, temperamental, passionate, suspicious, strong. She was Katara. The only thing that mattered in this moment, she realized, was she and him. Katara and Zuko. Nothing else mattered.

He was associated with so many things in her mind, fire and life and war and love. His firebending was the antithesis to her waterbending. Yet, can fire exist without water? Water quenched fire, fire vaporized water. Sun and Moon, light and dark, heat and cold. Fire and water, Zuko and Katara.

How could she love him in return? Did she love him in return? His nation was the one that had caused her mother's death, her father's imprisonment. Zuko himself had chased her and her friends to the ends of the earth, to regain something that cannot be given, only earned. He had killed people before, some of them her people, the son of the man who sought to take over the world.

But, his flaws made him Zuko, made him loveable. He protected her with his own body, taking the killing blow from Azula. He defected to the right side, to save the lives of so many people while sacrificing his own family's love. He faced down dragons, to help Aang and himself learn how to firebend without anger or hatred clouding their minds. He refused to fight the father he loved in an Agni Kai, earning himself a scar and shame. Zuko had fought so much, surrendered so much, for the peace the world had today. His flaws made him something that Katara could love. They symbolized what he was, and how that had made him what he is.

Katara realized, looking at the stars, that to truly love something, you had to love it for its flaws as well as its perfections. Loving something despite its flaws was not love.

Zuko hovered above her uncertainly, expecting her rejection and preparing himself for it. He was so used to it, from his family and from everyone around him. The brand of shame on his face was rejection burned onto his heart forever. He was a fool, to expect anything from Katara. He began to withdraw himself from her, face closing off.

She reached out to stop him, turning to face him. Her hands lifted from the bed, touching either side of his face hesitantly. Her big blue eyes stared at him, searching his face for something. She must have found it, because a small smile graced her features.

"Zuko," she whispered, drawing his face down until it nearly touched hers. He held his breath, hardly believing what was happening, so scared of the words coming out of her mouth. All of his earlier bravado had fled with his admission, cowering behind the force of his fear. Katara was everything he wanted, the only thing he wanted. He wanted her with a fierceness that caused everything else to shrink beneath its might. His love burned a hole in his heart every time he saw her, laughing and smiling and oblivious to the painful emotion setting fire to his heart.

How could she love someone like him? The killer of her people, her mother. Scarred and used and rejected, humiliated, by his own father. What must she see when she looks at him?

"When I see you, I think of love."

His heart froze its panicked beating in his chest, frozen at her words.

"You loved your father, despite how he treated you. You loved your mother, you loved your people. You even grew to love Aang enough to help him save the world. Oh, Zuko," she sighed, leg tightening around his waist. He hardly noticed.

"You are so brave, so passionate, so honorable." Zuko indrawn breath kick-started all of his organs, sending them racing. The honor she said he had was so much more satisfying than any he could have gleaned from his father.

"I think I love you too." Katara drew in a breath, gathered her courage. "No, I _know _I love you. I have since you held me after we confronted my mother's killer, together. You told me it was okay, that letting him go was so much stronger than killing him. You saved me from becoming a killer, and saved me again when your sister tried to kill me."

"What about Aang?" he asked huskily, hardly believing the words filtering through his ears. The small, grey eyed boy was very distant in his mind, but he had to ask.

Katara smiled. "He likes Toph, even if he can't admit it to himself yet. Things broke off between us before we came here."

"Do you still love him?" his heart ached when he asked.

"No, I love you."

Zuko's eyes fluttered closed at her words. Without opening them, unable to bear her reaction, he tilted his head so his scar was visible in the moonlight. "Even...?"

Katara drew him even closer, so her lips brushed his with her words. "Zuko, I love _you. _All of you. Your good parts, your bad parts, your triumphs and your fails, your jagged edges and your scars." She brushed a kiss over his scarred check, and he shuddered in her hands.

She drew back so she could stare him dead in the eyes, the blue consuming everything Zuko had, drowning him willingly. He looked so afraid, still afraid, after all she had said to him. His body was still tense, had gotten tenser with every word she spoke.

"I love you, Zuko. I love you."

She pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

His body tensed impossibly more for a moment, and then broke. He sagged against her body, hands sweeping up her sides to clutch the back of her neck and the side of her face, holding her tenderly. His lips firmed, angled, pulling her deeper into an embrace she never wanted to escape. She gasped when he tugged her roughly, twisting onto his side to get closer to her, slip an arm under her waist to push her chest into his. He used that moment to thrust his tongue into her parted lips, sweeping a hot claim over her mouth with lips, teeth and tongue. Katara eagerly reciprocated, her own claiming helped along with nails, scratching his back and twisting in his hair.

It felt so _right,_ to be like this with Zuko. She could hardly believe she was in love with the angry Fire Nation boy who had stepped off his ugly metal boat in the South Pole to demand the Avatar, that he loved her in return. But, he wasn't that boy anymore; he was a man, one who loved her and deserved her love in return.

After an eternal second, they pulled back for breath. She watched him pant through heavily lidded eyes, panting herself. She threw the leg not clamped under his body over his hip, tugging him into the cradle of her hips. He stiffened and hissed when the hot steel of his arousal pressed against the palpable heat of her. A flush stole over Katara's face, but she persevered through her nervousness, instinct guiding her motions.

"Katara," Zuko said, wonderingly, eyes flicking over legs strewn across his body to the slim hand on his shoulder to the blush on her cheeks, lighting on her eyes last. The strong planes of his face were illuminated by the light of the moon filtering through the crack in the curtains, eyes gold coins reflected. His strong jaw cast angled shadows against his chest, jagged bangs concealing part of his eyes. His face held a mixture of astonishment, wonder, joy, love, and a slight hint of nervousness.

"You will be my first," she blurted nervously, then blushed furiously. She hid her face in his chest, refusing to look up at him. He shook with silent laughter, and Katara scowled against the thick muscles and robes of his chest, but refused to look up.

"Is that a command, or a request?" Zuko asked, own nervousness forgotten as he looked at the small waterbender cradled to his body. She fit perfectly.

Katara tilted her head enough to glare at him, but not enough to reveal her entire face. "Neither," she said, growl muffled by his robes. "Just stating that I'm a virgin."

"You won't be my first," he said before thinking. When her face went blank, about to be filled with either anger or even more nervousness, he hurried to speak before he landed in hot water. Both emotions, he knew, would get him in trouble.

"You will be the first that matters, though."

Katara looked thoughtful. "Who was you first?" she asked him carefully.

Zuko shrugged. "Some girl Uncle and I met along the road, named Song. I stole an ostrich-horse from her."

Katara frowned. "You had sex with a girl, was probably her first, and then stole her animal?"

Zuko, detecting trouble ahead, only nodded hesitantly.

Her frown deepened. "You are such a guy! It's a good thing I don't have a story like that to share about losing my virginity, if so it would probably be about Jet-" She clamped her mouth shut with an audible click.

Zuko, incredulous now, demanded, "_Jet?!"_

He plowed on before Katara could respond. "You mean insane, rebel leader, stupid grass chewing Jet?!" Zuko scowled murderously. "Did he touch you? Did he?"

"No, he didn't touch me, Zuko-"

He interrupted, face darkening to a thunderhead. "Jet," he muttered darkly. "That idiot couldn't put his cock in a girl if his mother sat at his side and directed him."

"Zuko!"

Unheeding of her surprised exclamation, he continued. "He was probably no bigger than my pinky finger, with the skill of a bumbling new-born ostrich-horse!"

"He was a good enough kisser," Katara muttered acidly.

Zuko's scowl deepened even further. "You said he didn't touch you!"

Katara blinked at him innocently. "Kissing counts?"

"Yes!"

"Then I suppose he did touch me."

Zuko flipped them, so Katara was on her back with him above her once more. He scowled down at her, angered even more by her faint amusement. "I'll show you kissing," he said waspishly, rasping the words in a voice that made Katara shudder.

He attacked her furiously with mouth and hands, gripping her hips and jerking them to his with one hand while his other hand busily unclasped his thick robes. They pooled around his waist, baring his chest to Katara's delighted eyes and hands. Chiseled muscle arrowed down to disappear in a cut vee beneath the remainder of his robes tantalizingly. He knelt down, pressing his bare chest to Katara's chest, hot flesh meeting. She moaned and smoothed her hands over his shoulders and down his back, clutching the thick ridges of muscle over his shoulder blades when he nipped her lip with his teeth.

"Zuko," she moaned, arching into his touch when he ran his hand over her fluttering stomach. He tugged at the broad strip of fabric concealing her breasts and it unraveled. Katara blushed heavily and immediately covered herself.

"Stop that," he rasped. "You're beautiful, everywhere."

He drew her resisting arms out of his way, unable to tear his eyes away from the supple flesh bared. Unlike Fire Nation women, Katara had large breasts, with enticing brown skin and darker brown tips. He slid his rough palms over the sides, and Katara shuddered. Her blush was staining her cheeks dark red, the flush reaching to the tops of her breasts. Zuko grinned, curiosity fulfilled. _So that's how far it goes._

Katara whimpered when his hands closed over her breasts fully, rough hands grating over her sensitive peaks with unbearable slowness. "Zuko," she gasped, placing her hands over his to still them. He tore his eyes away from her chest to look at her wide, panicked eyes. "We can't!"

He frowned, not liking where this was going. "Why not?"

"We aren't even betrothed, much less married!"

"Katara," Zuko said in admonishment, surprised at this worry. "When I said I love you, and you returned the feeling, that made you _mine. _Nothing so... simple, or weak, as marriage can tear you from me. If you want marriage, I will gladly give it to you. But you need to know you are _mine, _now and forever, marriage or not."

"Possession goes both ways, Sparky," Katara said, adopting Toph's nickname for Zuko. "If I'm yours, you are mine too. And I don't share."

Zuko grinned widely, a rakish grin that lit his eyes mischievously. "Sharing isn't my forte either." His expression darkened suddenly. "I will kill anyone who touches you."

With his intoned words, so starkly possessive, Katara felt a flush of heat in her lower belly. "I can think of a few things I would rather be doing right now than talking about that," she said, gazing at him with unabashed lust.

Zuko grinned again, good humor returned, and gently moved her hands away from his. "Me too," he said, before lowering his head to her breasts.

Katara gasped in surprise, and then moaned when he nipped the underside of her breast. He assuaged the small hurt with a flick of his wicked tongue, causing Katara to wonder what else he could do with it. She tangled her fingers in his hair, sifting through the thick, silky locks. She jerked a bit hard when Zuko latched onto her peak, and he growled against her skin, causing it to vibrate pleasantly. She smiled and jerked again, causing another growl. Zuko looked up with burning eyes the second time, and she smiled bigger while mouthing 'sorry' insincerely.

She jerked again when Zuko bit her, and he let up looked at her again. She was smiling even wider now, happy with her newfound ploy. "Clever, are you?" he asked the lusty waterbender, bared to the waist in his big bed. She made a very pleasant picture, laid back in Fire Nation red and black silk, blue eyes a sharp juxtaposition, wavy hair splayed out wildly around her. He grinned himself when he thought of the one thing that could make it better.

Zuko sat up, pinning down her hips with his weight, and reached up. Katara's eyes were locked onto his stretching muscles, his arms bulging as he used them. She was sufficiently distracted when he snagged the golden rope holding his bed-drapes back, didn't even notice when part of them fell to conceal the bed. She did snap her attention back when he began to tie the rope around her wrists.

"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously, trying to tug her hands from his grip.

"Making you play nice," he answered, superior strength holding her to his will. He bound her wrists together with a few more knots. Holding them with one hand, he reached up to snag another rope. Katara stared at his muscles again for a moment before shaking her head back to the present. _That won't work twice, _she snarled to herself.

"Don't even, Zuko!" she yelled when he pulled her body up to the headboard. He only grinned wider before looping the rope around her wrists and then sliding it through a cutout on the giant headboard. Katara suspected the cutout had been placed there by his predecessors for precisely that reason.

She snarled and jerked her body against her restraints, eyes furious. Her breasts bounced with the movement.

"Do that again," Zuko rasped, eyes locked on her chest.

Katara went unnaturally still in refusal.

Zuko quirked a brow at her. "Bitter, are we?" he asked amusedly.

Katara glared sullenly, hair draped over her shoulders. Zuko had been right; she did look quite fetching tied up in Fire Nation gold, half dressed with Fire Nation red and black strewn around her in rumpled silk sheets. The moon light slivered onto her face, brightening her eyes to an impossible degree.

Zuko's chest was so full, it was near to bursting. He was happier, he realized, than he had ever been before. Although clearly irritated at the moment, Katara loved him. He grinned so wide the tight skin of his scar stretched oddly. Katara's lips quirked, but she smoothed it down instantly. Zuko noticed her little slip and chuckled as he crawled over to her on hands and knees.

She kicked at him when he got close enough with a harsh demand to untie her. He chuckled again and grabbed her leg as it swung by, pinning it to the bed with one hand. He levered the other to the ground as well when she shrieked in outrage and flung it at his face. He transferred the pressure of holding her quivering limbs down to his elbows as he made his way up the vee her legs made to his final destination.

Katara twisted her hips out of the way when he reached for her. "Maybe, if you untie me!" she snarled, teeth bared as she evaded his hands.

Zuko had not lost his grin. Eyes glinting, he struck, quick as a sand-viper, clasping both hands onto her each of her hip bones. As his strong hands closed around her, Katara growled and tried to jerk up again. He resisted the movement, pushing her hips back to the bed. His elbows and forearms pinned her thighs and knees down while his hands held down her hips.

Although slightly amazed at the brute strength Zuko was displaying, another affirmation that he was a man now, her irritation was winning out. "I'll scream for the guards," she warned.

Zuko's gaze snapped to hers, gold eyes narrowed in suspicion. "As Fire Lord, they would not dare to enter my chambers."

Katara smiled blandly. "Even if, say, the Southern Water Tribe Princess, daughter of Chief Hakoda who was already warned them to run to my every cry, training buddies with Sokka who is my brother, the one girl who makes a point to bring them little snacks whenever she encounters them on her midnight walks, screams like a Fire Nation noble woman who had ice put down her dress?"

Zuko frowned. "Midnight walks? Katara, roaming the palace at midnight is dangerous, especially when you are a young woman, alone-"

Katara opened her mouth and unleashed her vocal cords. The scream echoed, causing a flock of birds to alight from the trees outside Zuko's window, caused the water on the floor in his sitting room to ripple and wave at the waterbender's ire, jerked the guards outside his rooms to immediate attention.

Zuko barely had time to throw a silk sheet over Katara's half naked body and leap away from her before several guards stumbled into his innermost chambers, eyes wide and hands tight on their swords. "Fire Lord Zuko, we heard Princess Katara scream!"

Seeming to finally notice what they had walked in on, the main guard bumbled to a stop inside the door. His eyes traveled between Zuko's bare chest, robes pooled around his waist, to the red strip of fabric Katara had been wearing crumpled on the floor. Lastly, his eyes landed on the enraged waterbender, hands tied to the headboard above her head and silk sheet partially covering her. Katara jerked against her bonds and the sheet slipped a little. The guard averted his eyes quickly, looking at the ceiling as crimson stained his cheeks.

"Ah, we will just, uh, leave now, Fire Lord Zuko and-" he gulped. "Uh, Princess, ah, Katara."

One of the other soldiers snickered before he could hold it in. "There seems to be nothing wrong here," the main guard grumbled while glaring at the snickering guard. He clapped a hand over his mouth, trying to withhold his laughter.

"Seems to be something very right," mumbled another guard under his breath.

Zuko's eyes narrowed when the guard trying to withhold his snickers burst into raucous laughter, bending over halfway to prop his hands on his knees.

The main guard motioned, and the one who had made the comment slipped his arms under the laughing soldier's arms to haul him out of the room, heels dragging on the floor. His laughter did not lessen, and heightened incredibly when the guard hauling him away muttered, "What I wouldn't give for a pliant waterbender tied to my bed, 'specially one that looks like that."

The main guard gulped at Zuko's expression and bowed at the waist. Without releasing his bow, he left the room walking backwards. "I apologize, Fire Lord Zuko, for interrupted your, uh, um, activities-" loud laughter, now from both of the guards, interrupted him. With a sour look out of the corner of his eyes at his comrades, he disappeared. The door was slammed shut with a hollow thunk.

"I hate men!" Katara said, loud enough for the guards to hear. Their laughter increased considerably, nearly drowning out the main guard's chastising remarks.

"Do you understand what's going to happen now?" Zuko asked, fury and amusement battling in his eyes. He was still facing the door, and his hands clenched by his sides.

Katara just looked at him.

"Rumors, Katara! Those guards won't be able to keep their mouths shut about finding you in my, Fire Lord Zuko's, bed! Imagine, Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, in the Fire Lord's bed!"

Katara smiled smugly. "Now you _have_ to marry me."

Her smug tone made Zuko turn to face her. "I had planned on it anyway, _Sugar Queen._" Katara frowned when he used Toph's nickname. "Now, all you've done is caused rumors about your virtue to circulate, and it will make the wedding look like a sham."

"I don't care what other's think about us. I know the truth, and I'll see to it that anyone who matters knows as well," she said, with a stunning simplicity. Zuko looked at her, flabbergasted at her easy acceptance. Her next words made his fists tighten in anger once more, however.

"You should release me before I scream loud enough for the entire palace to hear," Katara said. "Marriage or not, I don't think a wedding would protect you from my brother and father."

With an irritated snarl, Zuko flew across the bed to clap a hand over her opening mouth. "Don't even think about it," he growled.

She bit his hand, but Zuko just raised a brow at her defiance. His eyes went hot, and he said huskily, "I can think of much more entertaining things for you to do with your mouth."

Lust flashed in her eyes, but ire battled it. Zuko threw the sheet off her body, other hand still covering her mouth. Without breaking his heavy lidded gaze from hers, he placed his hand over her waist and then slid it up her body. His rough, calloused hands felt unlike anything Katara had ever felt before, a reminder that Zuko was a _man, _not some fumbling boy like Jet had been for her first kiss. Katara had never felt more feminine than she did at that moment, when Zuko's body dwarfed hers in the moonlight now streaming in through the skylight high overhead. His rough hands and wicked gaze made her feel so alive, and the full moon made her skin tingle unbearably, until she could hardly hold onto the remnants of her thoughts, much less her anger.

She arched into his palm as it roughly closed over breast, and only gasped when his hand left her mouth to cover the other breast. Zuko growled deep in his throat, lowering his head to swipe his tongue over one peak, before latching onto it and sucking it into his mouth. He pressed it to the roof of his mouth and flicked his tongue, making Katara cry out. Her legs wrapped around his back, tightening with every flick.

He moved his mouth to her neglected breast, taking the nipple in his mouth like he had the other while his fingers manipulated its twin in time to flicks of his tongue. Katara mewled under his ministrations, writhing her hips. He pinned them with his other hand, and nipped her with his strong white teeth.

"Zuko!" Katara whisper-moaned.

He looked up at her with a hungry gaze and flipped his bangs out of his burning gaze. He turned his attention to her mouth, nipping, licking, and sucking her lips until finally claiming her mouth with a deep kiss that left Katara reeling. Her head lolled back against the headboard as Zuko quickly stripped her of her pants, spreading her pliant legs wide. He pressed a kiss to the underside of her knee and Katara hissed. Places she had never known were erogenous zones were quickly being found by Zuko's talented mouth.

When Zuko placed his mouth so close to her center, Katara shuddered at his hot breath and tried to draw away. "Zuko, I can't, no-"

"Why not?" He asked bluntly.

"It's _embarrassing," _she hissed, cheeks and breasts flushing enticingly.

"Katara, you are beautiful, everywhere." Zuko slipped his fingers inside the silky fabric concealing this last secret from his gaze. Katara tried to twist her hips out of his grip again, and he growled threateningly.

"Not _there, _though!" Katara's heart was fluttering, partly from anticipation and partly from embarrassment. He truly didn't want to do _that,_ did he? "Those are so- so gross!"

Zuko grinned wryly. "You just think that because you're a girl. Men find them very pretty."

Katara flushed even more. "Zuko!"

With a shrug, he said dryly, "Well, they are pretty. All nice and slick-"

"_Shut up!_"

Zuko grinned and pulled her undergarment off while she was distracted. Katara gasped when she felt the cool air around her bared skin, and shivered violently when it went from cold to burning in half a second. _Do all firebenders breath hot air, is it a thing? _She wondered, half hysterically from arousal and nerves. _Or is it just Zuko, displacing all the hot air in his empty skull? _

She screwed her eyes shut when she felt his indrawn breath of surprise. _I knew it!_ she though angrily. _I WOULD have the one strange vagina he has seen. Figures! Perfect. Just freaking perfect. _

"Katara... where is your hair?" Zuko sounded breathless. Katara inched one eyes open to check his expression. Instead of disgusted, he looked... aroused?

_Men are so confusing! _

"In the South Pole, we have to shave down there once we start to get monthly bleedings, so the blood doesn't freeze into the hair and everything and-" she rambled, trying to distract herself from her nerves.

Once she answered his question, Zuko had tuned out. His focus was solely on the treasure before him. Bare of all hair, Katara's center was before him, dusky skin giving way to pink, all slick for _him. Because of him._ He had never been so proud; to make Katara feel this way... Zuko nearly embarrassed himself at his own reaction, jerking in his robes like an untried boy. Then his eyes alighted on something nearly more fascinating.

Katara stuttered to a stop when he ran a thumb over her mark. "What is this?" he asked, sounding half strangled.

She looked down. He was staring at her tattoo with a strange expression. "A tattoo."

"Why?" he demanded breathlessly, unable to tear his eyes away from it. 'It', such a blasé term for something so fascinating, was a crescent moon, surrounded by vines sprouting strange flowers. Twined around the moon was a dragon, sinuous body curved around and around until its whiskered face was higher than the tip of the moon. It's head was curled downward, until its snout connected lightly with the moon's downward point. The vines and flowers created a circular barrier around the image. The dragon's tail leeched into the vines until they became one. The dragon and moon image was only the size of a coin, the coiling vines and flowers increasing it by a small margin. It was placed just on the inside of her inner thigh, below the crease where the separate limb met her lower middle.

Katara shifted, nearly able to feel his gaze burning into her skin. "I got it when I became a Master Waterbender. We all get tattoos, although my being a woman made it difficult to decide what kind and where to place it. Men get it on their hip bone, and their's is a full moon with a dragon inside it."

Zuko brushed his thumb over it wonderingly. Such intricate detail, a master had truly drawn this on her skin. "Why is yours different?"

"Well, it had been so long since they had had a warrior female waterbender, that it warranted something special. Of course, only me, the tattoo artist, and the designer know about it."

"Who designed it?"

Katara sounded a little sad when she said, "Yue."

Zuko nodded, remembering the girl who had become the new moon spirit. "She did an excellent job."

It was so lifelike, that Zuko half imagined the tiny claws on the dragon's paws were digging into Katara's skin, and the dragon seemed to regally blink at him when he ran his thumb over it again. Katara sighed when he did so, so he did it again.

"My skin is sensitive there," she admitted grudgingly.

Zuko looked at her when he pressed a small kiss to the tattoo. "Is it, now?" he asked lightly when her body shook.

Returning his attention to her womanhood, Zuko grinned. He had had his culture shock for the night; now, it was her turn.

When he pressed his mouth to her, she arched with a loud moan. Zuko would be surprised if his guards did not hear it.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" she asked with trepidation.

"Pleasing you," he said, sliding his hands beneath her buttocks to lift her closer to his mouth.

"Zuko-" she started hesitantly, cutting off with another moan when he slid his tongue along her velvety skin.

Zuko settled down to feast, not heeding Katara's muffled hesitations. He flicked his tongue against a bud at the apex of her slit, and she jumped, shrieking. "What was that?" she demanded. "What did you just do?"

Zuko grinned against her flesh. "Never played with that before, love?" he asked teasingly.

Katara softened only slightly when he called her an endearment. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she huffed.

Zuko lapped at her, and all thought fled Katara. She mewled and ached and slid against his mouth, using her hip movements to glean any hard contact she could from Zuko. He slid a hand out from under her body to press the flat of his thumb against her bud while he thrust his tongue into her. Katara yelled his name, and he filled with male satisfaction.

_Oh, just wait, _he thought with pride. Then, he concentrated his firebending, right _there._

Katara jerked with a jolt and a groan when Zuko's tongue heated up perceptibly. "Spirits," she moaned, rocking her hips against his wicked mouth. She ached to run her fingers through his hair. "Untie me, Zuko!"

He growled against her flesh, and Katara whimpered. His eyes flicked to hers, and the burning gold held her gaze as he thrust the thick muscle of his tongue deeper than before, pressed his thumb slightly harder, and then sent a tiny bolt of lightening through that one finger, his thumb.

Katara bowed off the bed, mouth opened on a soundless scream, before convulsing. Zuko felt her clench against his mouth, and nearly groaned. He imagined that vice-like grip around his cock and nearly lost his seed right there.

Zuko pulled himself from the cradle of her hips, trailing his fingers up her wet slit as he moved up her body. He gave her an open mouthed kiss, letting her taste herself as she came down from her high, and pinched her breast roughly with one hand and as he drove two of the fingers of his other hand deep inside her. He curled them, tapping against _that spot, _and Katara screamed.

Her body shook violently and she threw her head from side to side, tugging hard on her bonds as her muscles fluttered and ecstasy laced her veins. The water in the other room froze so suddenly it shattered into a million bits, becoming frozen bits of crystal on the dark carpet. Katara felt the tiny droplets on the skylight and froze them into hard pinpricks, cracking the thick glass and causing it to shatter as well. The small bits of glass rained on the couple entwined on the bed.

As glass bounced off his skin, Zuko laughed, a deep rolling sound Katara had only heard once or twice, and never in the tone it was in now. It was as intoxicating as the bare moonlight spilling across her skin now.

Zuko shifted to his knees and grasped the sheets. Katara lifted her hips up as well, so her body did not hold the sheets down. He swept them off the bed, taking the small shards of glass with them. "So you won't get cut later," he said at her glance.

Bolstered by the power of the pure moonlight shining on her skin, Katara called to the water she had thrown at Zuko earlier. It came at her call, sliding under the thick door. She directed with to slice her restraints. It did so easily, cutting them like butter. Katara swiveled her wrists, stretching her arms out in front of her.

She released the water onto Zuko's head. "You need a cold shower," she said acidly, examining the bulge under his robes.

Zuko sputtered, black hair slicked to his face. A water droplet dangled on the end of his nose and Katara laughed. "Something wrong, Sparky?"

Unexpectedly, Zuko smiled. Katara watched suspiciously as the lazy, wicked grin curled his lips. "Something is _right,_ Sugar Queen," he purred sinfully, broad shoulders looming over her as he twisted his body to curve over hers. She put her arms around his neck obediently when he moved them, watched with suspiciously aroused eyes as he traced her lips with one finger. "Very right." He steamed the water from his skin, the hot gas wafting across her sensitized skin.

Zuko kissed her slowly, lazily, a slow burn instead of passionate claim. He gently tugged her bottom lip with white teeth before sliding his tongue down the column of her throat, nipping the skin before clamping his teeth down on the supple muscle between her neck and shoulder. He sucked hard, determined to make his mark. Katara smoothed her hands over his shoulders with a sigh, knees falling open to give him more room for his big body.

"Zuko," she sighed, pushing lightly at his shoulders. He looked up at her, stark hunger glazing his eyes. "Lie on your back," she whispered shyly, eyes looking anywhere but at his as she pushed harder on his shoulders and chest.

He complied, anticipation and confusion curling in his stomach. "Katara?" he asked as she levered herself onto her knees beside his body. She placed a stomach against his abdomen to brace herself, and smiled when she felt the strong muscles contract against her palm. _My Zuko, _she thought, perusing his muscled, scarred body. _My strong, scarred Zuko._

She feathered her fingers over a star-shaped scar on the center of his chest. "You got this one saving me," she said, looking at him through lowered eyelashes. He only nodded, entranced by her hand touching him in the moonlight. It glinted off her dusky skin, shinning on her tattoo and blue eyes.

She pressed a kiss to the scar, and he jumped. With a smile, she pressed him back to the bed. It was a farce, they both knew; if he wanted up, he would get up. But he settled back at her behest.

Her fingers fluttered over another scar curiously. "Where did you get this one?" she asked, tracing the thin silver slice across his abs.

"A dagger, from the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se."

"This one?" she asked, hands moving to a short, thick slash below his ribs.

"Sokka, and his idiotic boomerang."

It was a jolt to her system, remembering that once this man spread out for her used to be her enemy._ Not anymore,_ she thought. _Never again._

"Take these off," she said, tugging at his robes. He hurriedly did as she asked, until all that separated him from her was thin silk pants. He was clearly outlined against them, jutting proudly. Katara swallowed her nerves.

"These too," she said huskily.

Zuko did so, more slowly. He drew loose the drawstrings, strong yet nimble fingers sliding the red silk over his hips. It caught on his erection, and Katara's breath caught in her chest when he lifted the silk up and over himself, until it was off completely, flung off one ankle to land somewhere on the other side of the room.

Katara's stomach clenched at her first sight. He was _big. I guess the rumors are true,_ she thought. _Fire Nation men, especially benders, are big._

It was easy to see, the moonlight from the skylight shining down. Katara was a virgin, but she was also a healer; she had seen cocks before, but usually the man was unconscious.

Zuko was Fire Nation pale, all over, she had now discovered. His cock rose proudly from a nest of black hair, a thick vein up the side pulsing. A flared head was flushed with blood, and weeping pre-cum.

Katara was harshly aroused, yet so nervous she could hardly breathe. She looked at Zuko from the side.

He was staring at her. She blushed.

"Katara," he said then, grabbing her arm to get her attention. She looked at him hesitantly, hoping he wouldn't see how nervous and inexperienced she was. What if she couldn't please him? He was two years older than her, had much more experience under his belt. She was a bumbling girl compared to the Fire Nation vixens who had graced his bed.

"I love _you,_" he said. "Anything you do will please me more than any other thing any other woman has done." Zuko grabbed her chin and lifted her head so he looked directly into her eyes. "I'm glad you're inexperienced. It means you will be mine, in every way."

"But what if-"

"Katara, _I love you. _I nearly burst like an untried boy when you just touched my chest. No one has that affect on me, except you."

"I love you too," she whispered, nerves fleeing beneath the shadow of his calm confidence. She reached out and curled her palm around him. He was hot, burning hot, and he jerked in her grip and moaned.

"Katara," he said, in a strangled voice. "You don't have to do this."

"I _want _to." She said firmly. "It's my turn to explore."

He laughed breathlessly. Taking that as permission to explore, she squeezed him a little. He moaned, and jerked his hips. Bolstered by his obvious pleasure, Katara began moving her hand in an up-and-down motion, squeezing slightly.

Zuko's hands clenched, and he propped himself up on his elbows to watch her. Her innocence was intoxicating, but as she became more confident in her movements and gleaned what he liked from the noises he made, she turned into a little waterbending vixen. She was naturally talented in bed, passionate and slow in turns. She swept her thumb over the tip, and he groaned.

She shifted her body so she was straddling his upper thighs and grinned at him wickedly. Her hand moved quicker, and she lowered her head. When she pressed a small kiss to the tip of his aching cock, Zuko yelled her name.

He stopped her when she moved to do it again. "One more time, and I'll come like an untried boy," he said.

She poked out her lip sulkily. With a deep rumble, Zuko leaned forward and took the pouty mouth with his own. His erection slid against Katara's bare thigh and she shuddered.

"Zuko," she said, grasping the back of his neck to stare into his gold gaze. She slid her fingers through his hair, the silky strands rubbing against her hand. "I need you now, Zuko."

Without breaking their gaze, Zuko gently pushed Katara down onto the bed. He lowered himself over her tentatively, propping himself up with his arms, next to her shoulders. "Put your legs around me," he directed. She complied, staring at him so trustingly it made his heart shake. "This will hurt at first," he warned when he was poised at her entrance.

She put her arms around his neck. "I know. I love you." She pressed a kiss to his scar.

Zuko began to enter her, slowly. She was so _tiny, _so _tight, _against him.

"Let's just get this over with," she snarled, before using her grip around his neck to push her hips up. He sank into her to the hilt suddenly, her hips crashing into his.

Katara's eyes screwed shut against the tinges of pain. Zuko gently lowered them back to the bed, keeping the connection so he would not cause any unwelcome movements inside her. "Why did you go and do that?" he asked, incredulous. Really, he supposed, he should have expected it. Katara had hardly ever done what he expected her to do.

"You were going too slow," she panted in quick breaths, eyes slitting open. "Anticipation was killing me."

"You will be the death of me," Zuko said, collapsing onto his elbows to place his head in the crook of her shoulder.

"I know. I love you," she said, sliding her fingers through his hair comfortingly.

"You're mine now, Katara." He said, pressing a kiss to her neck.

"I know," she said. "You're mine too. I love you."

"I love you too."

After a few minutes, Katara felt the pain had faded enough to move a little. She did so, wriggling her hips beneath his heavy weight. She gasped.

"What?" Zuko said, snapping to attention. "Are you in pain? Should I get out?"

"No!" Katara said, eyes wide. "I need you to move. _Now." _

Zuko glided out of her, achingly slowly. Katara shuddered as every inch was withdrawn, sliding from her body without a hitch. Katara sat up slightly, Zuko helping with one hand lifting her from behind her back, so she could watch. Zuko's cock slid, inch by wet inch, from her body, glistening in the moonlight.

"Zuko," she said, "faster."

He did as she said, pumping into her at a faster pace. Her hips moved to meet his thrusts, the air filling with their moans. Lightening arced through the air, mating with the silver light of the moon.

Katara gasped, muscles tightening around Zuko. _Is that a waterbender thing? _he though desperately. _Her muscles are like a vise, so damn tight! _

"_Zukozukozukozukozuko,_" Katara said, a mantra to accompany the wet glide of their bodies. He pistoned in and out, faster and harder, as her cries urged him on. The thick vein on the side of his cock scraped against her spot, making her shake and cry out louder.

"What are you?!" he demanded, clamping his hand around her neck and touching his forehead to hers. His body moved like a blur, in and out in and out. His eyes were two bright furnaces as they locked with her blue gaze.

"_Yours," _she gasped harshly. "_Yours, always, forever. And you are mine!"_

"Yesss," he hissed, and pressed his thumb onto her bud in praise. Katara arched off the bed, crying his name even louder.

"I love you, Zuko," she said, tears streaming down her face. He kissed them from her cheeks, knowing why she cried, overcome himself nearly to that point. His heart was so full, it strained against his chest, beat so fast he was sure it would burst.

"I love you too, Katara," he said.

Katara screamed, and all of the water in the corridor rushed into Zuko's room. It fled through windows, under doors, out of wash basins and glasses to hover in the air in shining droplets. Thousands of stars, made by Katara, hung in the air, glistening in the moonlight. Her muscles fluttered around Zuko's cock, tightening until he had trouble withdrawing from her body.

"Katara!" he yelled, before reaching his peak. He spilled like molten fire against her insides, scalding her ecstasy to a fever pitch. Lightning danced among the crystal droplets, electric blue branching out across the ceiling of the room.

The droplets vibrated as Katara had her third orgasm, brought on by Zuko's. They froze and rained down, clicking against the stone floor. None landed on the bed, testament to Katara's power.

Zuko fell heavily atop his lover, mashing his chest with hers. She slid her arms around his back to toy with his hair and tightened her legs. She enjoyed his heavy weight against her body, his warmth bearing her down into the bed.

They laid like that for quite awhile, not saying anything, just stroking each other's hair and available skin. Zuko got up eventually, padding off. Katara sat up to see, but he returned before she could move. "Lay down," he said, pushing her back. She obeyed instantly. When she realized she had obeyed so quickly, she sat up to berate him for ordering her around.

"Chastise me later," he pushed her back into the bed. "Right now, let me take care of you."

"Take care of me?"

Some splashing sounds, and then Katara felt a gentle stroke between her thighs. Zuko gently cleaned the virgin's blood from her with a soft towel, soaked in warm water. "I had to firebend to heat the water you bent," he said conversationally. "It still has not melted."

Katara blinked at him owlishly. "I waterbent?" she asked.

"I think it was around the third time you came," he said. His face was hidden by his hair from her view, but she could tell he was smiling.

"Don't be so smug," she said in reproach. "I won't be impressed unless you can repeat that performance."

Zuko looked up, lips still curled in a wicked grin. "So you mean to allow me a repeat performance?"

"I intend to give you as many times as you need to achieve a satisfactory repeat performance."

Zuko laughed, the same deep rolling laugh. "We'll have to wait for you to recover, but I am up to that."

Katara shifted, feeling a twinge of pain inside. "I suppose so," she said sullenly.

Zuko finished cleaning her and then laid at her side. He spooned her form against his from behind, curving his arm around her middle easily. She fit against him like a puzzle piece, perfectly. Katara tangled his feet with hers, and sighed in contentment.

"So," she purred wickedly, "how do you want to break the news to Sokka and my Dad?"

Zuko buried his head in her hair and groaned.

Katara laughed softly.

"Maybe," he said slowly, "about as much as you want to make the walk-of-shame in the morning?"

Katara frowned.

Zuko chuckled softly, earning a small pinch from Katara. "Not funny, Sparky."

"There are secret passages between my room and your sitting room," he said, still chuckling. "No walk of shame for you."

"Why does my sitting room have wepassages? Do all of the rooms have them?"

"...No..."

Katara smiled. "Confident, are we?"

"Hopeful, more like."

Katara snuggled deeper into Zuko's arms. He tightened them around her. "I love you, Katara."

"Love you too, Zuko."

When Katara woke up the next day, she was alone. She scowled until her outstretched palm touched a note on the bed. Reaching over, she picked it up and read it quickly.

_Meeting with important nobles. Breakfast is on nightstand. Secret passage is behind tapestry in bathroom. Present for you in your sitting room. _

_Love, Zuko. _

_p.s. I am keeping the flame underwear I found in your drawers. I want you in the white, crystal studded ones tonight. _

Katara smiled. Short and to the point. Like Zuko, except the short part. She laughed at her own wit before scrambling from the bed. Her clothes were a wreck, but his crumpled silk pants and a shirt she scavenged from his closet were perfectly fine, if way too big. After devouring all of the crisp, flaky biscuits and warm seasoned meat, Katara escaped through the dank passageway and into her own rooms.

The sitting room was filled with ten or so barrels. Another note was tacked to the one closest to the passageway door.

_Midnight silk for my midnight lover. _

Katara smiled happily and opened the barrel.

It was filled to the brim with the dark, crystal studded silk Zuko had burned rummaging through her underwear drawer. If every barrel was filled with the same silk, she could make Sukki a hundred dresses!

"Love you, Sparky," she said under her breath, hand fanning over the silk.

A sharp clearing of a throat made her look up suddenly. Her father was sitting on a chair, hands clasped in his lap. Sharp blue eyes roved over her, taking in Zuko's clothes.

"Well," he said slowly, running a hand over his dark hair, laced with grey. "I suppose I know where you were last night. All night, I presume?" he asked, with raised brows.

"Dad, I love him."

"Do you now?"

Katara began getting angry at his bland face. "Dad, you can't-"

Her door burst open, hitting the opposite wall with a bang. "Got him!" Sokka crowed, hauling Zuko in by the scruff of his Fire Lord robes. Her brother tossed him into the room, and Zuko stumbled before looking up. "He thought he could run, when he saw me coming with the other Water Tribe men! He only got a few feet before Pakku froze him to the ground though, and you should've seen the way his eyes bugged out-"

Sokka's eyes alighted on his sister, who was standing rigidly against the wall. His eyes flitted over as well, landing on Zuko's clothes before blazing up in a fury.

"YOU!" he yelled, pointing at the Fire Lord.

"Him," Hakoda said evenly.

"He-?" Sokka looked at Hakoda questioningly.

Hakoda nodded. "Yes."

Sokka turned to the offending Fire Lord. "YOU BETRAYED ME!" he wailed. "YOU WERE MY FRIEND, THEN YOU HAD SEX WITH KATARA!"

"SOKKA!" Katara screamed. Fed up with the men in her life, she waterbent the water from her wash basin in the corner and froze all three men to the ground.

"Me?" Zuko asked, eyebrows drawn in puzzlement as he looked down at his frozen feet.

"You!" she agreed.

"Un-freeze me this moment! Katara!" Sokka yelled. "I must avenge your virtue!"

"Shut _up,_ Sokka! Before I freeze your mouth shut too!"

"Katara, stop being childish," her father said.

"No, Dad," she said, turning on him. "_You stop being childish. _I fought a war, Dad. I'm not a kid anymore. I can make my own decisions, my own choices. And I choose Zuko."

"Do you now." He said, turning steely eyes on Zuko. "How do I know he didn't coerce you into this? He's older than you, more experienced with these things. Or at least, he better be."

"Dad, you must not know me very well to think someone could coerce me into anything."

"She's got a point," Sokka said. Hakoda eyed his son. Sokka gulped.

"I love your daughter, Chief Hakoda," Zuko said. When Hakoda turned a cold glare on him, he continued on, nonplussed. "I've loved her for a long time. I want your blessing to marry her. I want it, but I don't need it. I intend to marry Katara whether you want me to or not. I informed Sokka of my intentions a long time ago."

"Did you now."

Sokka gulped again. Loudly.

"Please, sire. Consider blessing this union."

Hakoda stared at Zuko, measuring him. Long minutes passed. "You have my blessing," he said, after an eternity. Zuko sighed in relief, but Katara knew better. She waited for the ball to drop.

"But you must do the Running of the Suitors."

Sokka crowed with glee, and Zuko frowned in suspicious confusion. "What's that?" he asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Just a trial to make sure you are worthy of my daughter, and able to withstand the Water Tribe."

Zuko looked at Katara for help, but she just firmed her mouth into a straight line and shook her head slowly. No help there.

"I hope you aren't embarrassed easily," Sokka said.

"Is that-?"

"Spirits, it is!"

"But why is he naked?!"

Zuko darted across the crowded palace gardens, without a stitch of clothing on. Finally, after an eternity of being gawked at by his nobles, he made it to the opposite side of the garden. He was afraid several women had fainted, and resolved to make a handwritten apology to everyone staying on the palace grounds at the moment. And a few nobles besides. He winced, hand already cramping.

"I- did-it," he panted harshly. He had never realized how large the gardens were. "Every path, splashed through every fountain, posed in front of every gaggle of women. Just as agreed."

Hakoda smiled blandly at the young Fire Lord. Zuko nearly flinched, seeing so much of Katara's devious expression in her father's eyes.

Pakku sprayed him with a barrage of ice water, soaking him from head to toe. Zuko yelped and leapt away in surprise. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"Harming her virtue before she was promised to you. Now, do it again. But this time, whenever you pass the women, I want you to stop and tell them that they should call you 'virtue-destroyer' from now on."

Zuko groaned and hung his head. He looked up when Sokka stepped up beside him. The other man had a fierce scowl on his face, and not a stitch of clothing.

"Why are you naked?" Zuko asked him.

"For not telling Dad about your intentions," Sokka growled, casting him an accusatory glare.

"You better appreciate this Katara!" Zuko yelled, a war-cry, before leaping back into the garden.

When the young Fire Lord had disappeared behind a curve in the path, and the first loud gasps arose from the women, Hakoda turned to his traitorous son. "You must tell every woman you cannot be trusted."

"Sukki is gonna kill me, and it'll be your fault. I hope your satisfied!" Sokka sprinted off, whooping and hollering.

Hakoda watched his son disappear as well, before dissolving into hysterical laughter. Pakku laughed as well, doubling over and wheezing harshly. "Brilliant, Hakoda!" he said, clapping the other man on the shoulder.

"Now, wherever did you come up with that 'Running of the Suitors' bit? And you did it on the spot, you said? Tell the story again, but describe Zuko's face more!"

"You see, it all started when this guard, laughing himself silly, approached me..."

_Finis_


End file.
